Trans.History in Moldova

Centropa - is a non-profit, Jewish historical institute dedicated to preserving 20th century Jewish family stories and photos from Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and disseminating these stories and photos through films, books and exhibitions.Since 2000, Centropa has interviewed 1,200 elderly Jews in 15 countries from Central and Eastern Europe, collecting anddigitizing 22,000 of their family photos. Centropa then turned some of the most compelling biographies into short multi-media films that are being used in 600 schools in 20 countries. Near 35 short, biographical films about European-Jewish family stories, as well as 10 brief documentary films that can easily be used in various educational settings.

Collaboration with EcoVisio started in 2019 through Trans.History Program with the goal to develop a regional network of educators who are actively involved in Holocaust and tolerance education. From October 2019 to May 2020, were organized regional training seminars to which were invited teachers and civil society multipliers from the six target countries.

Trans.History Program empowers teachers to offer their students proactive teaching methods that bring 20th century Jewish history to life. Through films, traveling exhibitions and youth competitions, we enable teachers and teenage students to better understand their country´s history, and to learn more about minorities and the common history of their region.

Trans.History not only connects Ukrainians and Moldovans to their country’s Jewish history – it also encourages cultural exchange between German, Ukrainian, Polish and Moldovan civil society actors: By inviting German (and Polish) educators to these seminars, and having them work side by side with their colleagues from Moldova and Ukraine, to build bridges between civil society actors, and encourage the exchange of ideas and methods. Education tools such as exhibitions and films, our program promotes critical thinking, democratic values and a balanced culture of remembrance. We engage young Ukrainians and Moldovans by offering a video competition that motivates them to explore the history of their country.

From 2000 to 2010, Centropa has compiled 1,200 interviews with Jewish Holocaust survivors in 15 European countries, and digitized 22,000 of their family photos. Based on these stories and photos, we have produced more than 50 short multimedia films and traveling exhibitions that focus also on Jewish life, not only the Holocaust. This program exist in a Moldova, Ukraine and Visegrad Countries. In 2015 with the local partners was established the project, what included conducted a dozen training seminars on „20th Century Jewish history and digital media“ for more than 300 Moldovan and Ukrainian teachers and NGO representatives.

With the goals of the program to fostering democratic values such as pluralism, and a critical discussion of 20th and 21st century history, with a special focus on Jewish history, the Holocaust, prome active civil society participation through the implementation of nation-wide video competitions,strengthen interest in local Jewish history and Holocaust Education, combat prejudices, xenophobia, and anti-semitism and promote critical thinking and a balanced culture of remembrance.

Mostly the activities in Moldova are training seminars for educators and NGO representatives in Moldova, making and promoting short multimedia films on Moldovan-Jewish family stories,lectures, lesson plans and Jewish biographies on website in Romanian and Russian, bilingual travelling exhibition „The Moldovan-Jewish Family Album“, with accompanying brochure in English, Romanian and Russian and promoting annual youth competition on local Jewish history and intercultural dialogue.

Seminar with Teachers in Râșcova

50 teachers from Ukraine, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, including 22 teachers from Moldova, participated in the Trans History Seminar on Jewish culture and history in the region. The seminar was held at EcoVillage, October 25-27.

During the three days of the seminar, the teachers explored the Jewish Cemetery in Orhei, worked on the preparation of the teaching materials for the optional course on Jewish history and visited the exhibition `The Album of a Jewish Family in Moldova`. The exhibition, which was presented in the Rîșcova gymnasium, consists 25 interviews and over 400 documents and photographs of Jewish Holocaust survivors, living in Moldova.

All the teaching materials prepared at this seminar will be found in a guide by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research of Moldova, to be presented on October 30th. More photos on EcoVisio facebook page.

Exhibition: The Moldovan Jewish family album

The bilingual (russian/ romanian) Centropa exhibition „The Moldova Jewish Family Album“ is based on our 24 interviews with Jewish Holocaust survivors from Moldova and on almost 400 digitized old family pictures and documents. Through their pictures and stories, the preserved memory of a lost Jewish world.To September 2019 already near 5000 Moldovan’s in 11 schools and institutionsvisited the Exhibition. The special part of work that is made is that teachers that invite the exhibition prepare pupils to become guides for the exhibition by presenting the personal stories that can be found in the Brochure of the Exhibition that can be found on Trans.Histiry website.From the start of collaboration of EcoVisio with Centropa more than 5,000 Moldovans have visited the exhibition in 16 locations all over the country and in total 10.000 people had possibility to visit it from the day of the general opening, here are 2 articles about it in media: europalibera , stiripozitive.

The Exhibition can be booked and brought by EcoVisio toinstitutions all over Moldova for use of professors as an educational material. In normal time the Exhibition is traveling each 2 weeks and is booked months ahead as from the practical part is very easy to use.

International Trans.History Youth Competition

Students from Ukrainian, Moldovan, Hungarian, Polish, Slovak and Czech schools can create innovative and creative film project on 3 topics Famous Jewish persons of my country “, „(Hidden) Jewish heritage of my region “, „Righteous Gentiles* and the importance of civic courage “. In This 19/20 year were received almost 30 projects that  were reviewed by an international jury formed by six experts in audiovisual projects and Jewish history.This Year winning team from the Chisinau Art School with the project  „The Architect of the City‘s Soul“ the video down below. Here you can find details about other participants.

Trans.History Audio Wlaks

The AudioWlak is part of a larger project of 2 cites, Chisinau and Chernovtsy. The project was created in more than 6 moths and Recorded in a studio in Vienna, Chernovtsy and Chisinau, it can be listened in German, English, Russian and Romanian with the cover of local theater actors like Niclae Darie, Marina Modan, Natalia Braguta and Andrei Modan.  The AudioWalk takes you on a journey through Jewish Chişinău and allow you to discover many of the cities’ nearly forgotten sites of Jewish life as you listen to the memories of thirteen Jewish Holocaust survivors which were shared in Centropa interviews.This Guide uses archive material that was historical research by Dr. Irina Shikhova, Dr. Diana Dumitru, Holger Köhn, Christian Hahn working as producers and Maximilian von Schoeler coordinationg the process with support from the local organizations.

Use our AudioWalk and find out more about the unknown storiesfrom Chisinau,which you can find here.