In its effort to reach as many students as possible, the Jewish Museum of Greece has produced a number of Museum Cases. Each one contains information for the teacher and rich visual material and activity props that ensure an interesting presentation in the classroom.
This initiative of the Museum’s is based on a tried and tested Museological practice and offers, mainly to students who cannot visit the Museum, the chance to come into contact with some of the Museum’s exhibits and learn about the issues it proposes for discussion.
The first Museum Case entitled “Hidden Children in Occupied Greece” is based on the JMG exhibition of the same title, and can be accompanied by the travelling version of the exhibition, so that they can be presented together. The Museum Case – and the exhibition – examines the stories of various Jewish children from all over Greece who lived through the events of World War II and the German Occupation. Because of the tender age of its target group, the material avoids putting an emphasis on the horrors of the Holocaust without, however, covering up the crime. It concentrates instead on the stories of the hidden children, connecting them to current genocides and issues of human rights, so as to emphasise the importance of remembrance in avoiding a future Holocaust.
The second Museum case, the title of which is “The Holocaust of the Greek Jews, 1941-’44” is based on the travelling exhibition of the same title. It is filled with rich visual material and information, specially designed for a classroom presentation. Its target group is 12 to15-year-old pupils and the Museum Case was designed to introduce them to this difficult subject in an interesting and memorable way. Another aim is for the Museum Case to enrich the Greek school curriculum by becoming a starting point for the examination of other, relevant historic issues.
