Saving and Renewing Schindler's Ark - implement digital and place based learning where film ocurred
The overall goal is to save Schindler’s Ark to form a Museum of Survivors in the heart of Europe. Schindler’s Ark was a concentration camp where 1200 Jews on Schindler’s List were saved, as shown in the film by Stephen Spielberg. The project implements testimony, iWalk and permanent digital and place-based learning in the unique place where the events occurred to reach the 100-200,000 visitors per year. It is co-designed with students from five countries to reach 3 million schoolchildren.
Cross-border/international
Czechia
Hungary
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Austria
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Germany
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Slovakia
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It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
Yes
Citizen, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV)
CERV-2022-CITIZENS-REM
No
Yes
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Arks Foundation Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Daniel Last name of representative: Low-Beer Gender: Male Nationality: United Kingdom Function: Chairperson Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Brnenec 101, 56904 Brnenec, Czech Republic Town: Brnenec Postal code: 56904 Country: Czechia Direct Tel:+420 732 222 626 E-mail:daniellowbeer@gmail.com Website:https://arksfoundation.net/
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Yes
New European Bauhaus or European Commission websites
The overall goal is to save Schindler’s Ark to form a Museum of Survivors in the heart of Europe. Schindler’s Ark was a concentration camp where 1200 Jews on Schindler’s List were saved, as shown in the film by Stephen Spielberg. Schindler’s Ark was stolen by the Nazis from the Low-Beer family in 1938.
The Low-Beer family bought back the ruined factory in 2018 and in partnership with the local community formed the Arks Foundation. They co-designed the project for a museum and the hybrid place based and digital testimony learning led by local guides.
This project has implemented testimony, iWALK and digital place-based and virtual learning in the unique place where the events occurred. The digital media and testimony activities are used, training local guides, to reach the expected 100-200,000 visitors per year for the Schindler’s Ark Museum. The activities are adapted to the school curricula in Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Germany, to reach the 3 million upper secondary school children (aged 14-18) in these five countries. In addition, the universality and recognition of the story will be adapted and translated to be available to the 22 million upper secondary school children in European countries, virtually or in place.
The objectives of the project are the following:
1. New hybrid digital and place-based media facilities equipped for the museum - A. 6 permanent testimony activities and interactive testimony developed, implemented and installed to reach 100-200,000 visitors p.a. B. Exhibition "Starting from Zero" developed combining place-based, digital and school outreach learning.
2. Lifelong learning and new testimony activities developed - A. Co-design of the activities with schools from 5 European countries with measurable learning activities B. Co-design of two iWalks, one local and one European and creation of new testimony materials in digital archive C. European curriculum module adapted to each country.
Place based learning using European heritage
Hybrid digital, school outreach and place based education
Co-design with schools from 5 countries
Standing up to discrimination
Testimony learning
Sustainability is at the heart of the project due to the synergy of the three objectives 1. A leading museum which convenes people and provides hybrid digital and place based learning 2. A huge and beautiful workshop to make new bauhaus textiles to improve the thermal, light, touch and sound quality of the museum, and 3. Transformation of a historic and neglected place into a sustainable community center for local and European visitors.
In addition, the project
1. Reconnects with nature – it creates a unique rural setting for the new European Bauhaus, building circular, sustainable approaches into the approach, the materials used (renewing wool and wood in building), and the involvement of the community in governance, design, making, use and resilience of the site.
2. Regains a sense of belonging – for the community, its expertise in textiles, and for a key part of European history in Schindler’s Ark. The community is involved in governance, making and running the site.
3. Adopts a long term and full life cycle thinking – the project draws on life cycle and circular, sustainable processes in all stages, from the design, use of materials with recycled wool and of building materials on the site, energy with new renewable wind and solar power units, and the use with modular units that can be rearranged and recycled. In addition, digitization is used in the museum and the response of textiles to heat, light and the environment in the buildings. Finally, the project extends circular approaches to technology itself, where nature is seen as the primary technology, in terms of wool, textiles and energy, and the community as central to the design, making, finance, maintenance, and renewal of the site. The approach is influenced by the sustainable development goals, “Towards the Circular Economy” (2013), the use of digital data in the museum with the EU 2020 project Cicerone.
4. The project also fully participates in the New European Bauhaus network as a partner.
The Tugendhat and Low-Beer family also commissioned the Tugendhat Villa built by the bauhaus director of architecture (Mies van der Rohe) and textiles (Lilly Reich) in Brno in 1929. The project builds on this aesthetic, weaving textiles into the design and using the art of survivors in its learning activities, to
1. Catalyse Central European engagement with European history and New Bauhaus in textiles – through saving Schindler’s Ark as the most prominent museum for survivors and how they shape our world.
2. Has completed textile innovations and a Brno chair in its design - to improve sound, heat, tactile, colour, smell, and pollution insulation and the experience of sitting comfortably in the lessons. 3 textile innovations to improve heat and sound insultation by 20%, renewable energy efficiency by 10% and Uw values of the large windows by 10% which like the Brno Tugendhat House link us to nature have been implemented
3. The project leverages the unique collections developed by the Foundation of artists who “started from Zero” and shaped our world, the bauhaus textile leaders Anni Albers and Otti Berger and Lucie Rie who was forced to make buttons after the war. Visitors and school students experience the original and new Bauhaus in art and in their stories, and the textiles are built into the materiality of the museum, for example Anni Albers and Otti Berger room dividers to be made in the site.
4. The project also supports the transmission of memory to the present, and has developed new materials, including film and testimonies of second and third generation survivors. Additional testimonies have been completed on the second-generation families of Schindler Jews, including Joseph Bau, Arnost Lustig, and Thomas Keneally who wrote Schindler’s List. For the textile lessons, the textiles of Otti Berger, one of the two greatest bauhaus artists who was murdered in Auschwitz, have been created for the first time and used for teaching with a new book.
The piloting and implementation of the activities fosters a common culture of remembrance between citizens of different countries, focusing piloting on joint activities between five countries Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Germany, and then making these available to all European countries and to the estimated 100-200,000 visitors to the site internationally. Each of the components are also linked to present day issues and how to stand up to discrimination now, with learning objectives. In addition, issues of gender rights and local Roma populations (with the work of our partner Terezin Initiative Insitute documenting and educating about Roma Holocaust Victims) are addressed, and including Otti Berger on gender and disability, as she had difficulties hearing but a heightened sense of touch for textiles. Her touch board is recreated.
The project was based on an extensive co-design process on needs with the local community, the Czech Jewish Foundation, the Zachor and Shoah Foundations, and with public consultations and inputs in Brnenec, Brno and Prague. The co-design is included in the governance of the Arks Foundation, and with consultative activities locally and with European experts from different countries.
In 2019, community consultations were held in Brno and Prague, and the outcome document published transparently with a dozen inputs to the project (“Community and Expert Consultations Outcomes” 2019, www.thearksfoundation.net). Consultations were then completed in Brnenec with local mayors, community groups, together with European teaching and museum experts.
In 2020-2022 schoolchildren were included from Germany and Czech Republic and the co-design process of “Making a Museum” extended to school children from five countries with progress analysed by age, sex, nationality, disability and background. Each set of schoolchildren develops a component of the learning program which will be installed permanently in the museum.
The co-design process "Making a Museum" with schoolchildren in five countries has been central to the development of all testimony and learning activities achieved so far, and adapting them by age, sex, country and to the next generation. This was tested and developed in the release of the iWalk and in the testimony activities to over 500 people in 2021 and 2022.
In addition the co-design process was based on the needs with the local community, the Czech Jewish Foundation, the Zachor and Shoah Foundations, and with public consultations and inputs in Brnenec, Brno and Prague. The co-design is included in the governance of the Arks Foundation, and with consultative activities locally and with European experts from different countries. The local NGO Brno Meeting facilitated the public events reaching over 500 people and the NGO Zachor Foundation was involved in developing the learning activities. The EU Remembrance grant includes two NGOs and Mikroregion Brnenec the consortium of twelve mayors from the local villages. They are involved in the governance, making of the materials and sustainability of the program.
Finally, the project also involves teachers and policy makers so the activities are shaped and adapted to the school curricula in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Germany, to reach the 3 million upper secondary school children (aged 14-18) in these five countries.
The activities were successfully piloted with our partners, Meeting Brno, Zachor and Shoah Foundations, in October 2021 and July 2022 convening Czech and German schoolchildren and locals to promote intercultural dialogue, reviewing responses by age, gender and nationality, as well as promoting disabled access through a hybrid approach. This involved six months of local training and knowledge transfer, using local expertise and guides. Ongoing monitoring and learning compares knowledge, attitudes and skills by age, sex and background to extend the impact across contexts.
The project is co-designed and implemented with local, regional and European wide partners. The project was based on an extensive co-design process on needs with the local community, the Czech Jewish Foundation, the Zachor and Shoah Foundations, and with public consultations and inputs in Brnenec, Brno and Prague. The co-design is included in the governance of the Arks Foundation, and with consultative activities locally and with European experts from different countries.
In 2019, community consultations were held in Brno and Prague, and the outcome document published transparently with a dozen inputs to the project (“Community and Expert Consultations Outcomes” 2019, www.thearksfoundation.net). Consultations were then completed in Brnenec with local mayors, community groups, together with European teaching and museum experts.
In 2020, the community movement Meeting Brno convened several hundred stakeholders and schools to consult on the plan. They hired a train from Brno and transport from the local villages for communities to meet, review and co-design the plans. They also saw together the film Schindler’s List in the ruined factory where the events occurred, many said it was an unforgettable experience.
In 2021, the plans were approved in detail, and reviewed with input by Re-FACT, a group of architects from five European countries specialised in recovery of cultural and industrial heritage and community and environmental regeneration. They chose Brnenec as their European site for 2021, culminating in a week-long visit of 20 European specialists in community regeneration and heritage from five countries to work on the plans.
At the same time, learning activities were developed with teaching partners, namely Brno Meeting, Zachor and Shoah Foundations using the 50,000 hours of testimonies they provide. The project also became a New European Bauhaus partner in 2021. This is the basis for the community, regional and European co-design
This project builds on synergies and combines the disciplines and knowledge fields of four partner groups who create the hybrid digital and place based learning and ensure they are permanently installed in the site to maximise the scope and depth of learning outcomes:
1. Local institutions - Brno pedagogy, textile and architecture university departments and the Brno Museum which includes the Tugendhat Villa, local textile experts Kubak and Ekotextil, community NGO Meeting Brno and the network of local mayors (Mikroregion Brnenec) who co-finance and include the project in their local budgets for sustainability
2. Architecture partners – Re-FACT specialised in the recovery of industrial heritage and community and environmental regeneration, representing architecture departments from five European countries (Brno, Nancy, Saarbrucken, Florence and Sevilla) who chose the Arks as their European project in 2021
3. Textile and Museum partners – the Norway National Museum with their experience on Otti Berger. Grassi Museum, and the Mendel and Tugendhat Museums who combine architecture and science
4. The Zachor and Shoah Foundations on education and the Terezin Initiative Institute with its reach on anti-Semitism in the Czech context, including documentation of Roma victims and online textbooks. They combine testimony-based education with digital, film and media literacy. The project extends and innovates with these materials by installing them in the places where the events occurred. Surveys show that after using IWitness students are 93% more likely to believe it is important to speak up against stereotyping and 61% less likely to believe stereotypes are true. Analyses also have shown that groups of students who use IWitness exhibit a 30% rise in reaching the highest level of critical-thinking skills.
The partners work together to maximise the hybrid digital and place based learning with monthly team meetings and co-design meetings in the site in 2021 and 22.
The approach innovates with the proven approaches of Shoah and Zachor Foundations with iWitness and iWALK materials developed by the USC Shoah Foundation, to implement innovative hybrid and place based learning in the place where the events occurred. There is innovation in the co-design and testing with schools from five European countries to "Make a Museum".
Building on the extensive experience of the Zachor Foundation in implementing testimony and digital learning in Central and Eastern Europe., the project innovates with new media materials, and hybrid place based and virtual, digital learning, installing them in the places where the events occurred, linking them to new film, documentary, witness and learning materials.
Surveys show that after using IWitness students are 93% more likely to believe it is important to speak up against stereotyping and 61% less likely to believe stereotypes are true. Analyses also have shown that groups of students who use IWitness exhibit a 30% rise in reaching the highest level of critical-thinking aptitude on tests. The innovative materials include 2515 full-length testimonies of survivors of genocides including the Holocaust, 1994 Rwandan Tutsi Genocide, 1937 Nanjing Massacre and 1915 Armenian Genocide.
The innovative theory of change is that hybrid place-based and virtual testimony activities in a unique place where the events occurred can improve the reach and outcomes of learning, capability and skills training in relation to discrimination, critical media analysis, and citizenship skills acquisition by 30%. If implemented in a permanent manner in the site with hybrid access, these balance improved outcomes with wide scope to lead to a long term impact of 30% improved intentions, critical media skills and intention to stand up to discrimination, to a large group of 100-200,000 visitors per year, at least 3 million children reached, and with wider recognition of at least 5 million people across Europe.
A key value of the project is the sustainable and permanent long-term impact of the activities by housing them in a universally recognised heritage site that will attract 100-200,000 visitors per year, and with access to 3 million school children from Central and Eastern Europe.
The project creates a permanent installation and hybrid place based and digital learning curriculum based on proven and new materials, linked to the ongoing management of one of the most well-known sites of the Shoah, Schindler’s Ark. Furthermore, it creates a track record in different European countries, together with evaluation and research, for adoption of the work in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Germany and any European country.
The project gives a permanent European place for the witness testimonies and to tackle past and present-day issues of discrimination. The materials are universal and can be taught in every European country yet will be adapted to tackle current issues in each context, providing:
• A permanent home for testimonies of past and present-day discrimination issues, in addition to the curriculum there will be a permanent home for the memory in a place of European wide recognition. Place-based and hybrid virtual learning will be critical to promote engagement in the next generation and EU wide scope.
• Institutionalization of the curriculum, by providing policy papers and advocacy so that it is permanently adopted in countries and can be adopted in any European country. The learning across countries in this project will be critical to ensure it is relevant in different settings to all school children in Europe, with a reach of 22 million upper secondary school children.
• The project learns continually from implementation by comparing knowledge, attitudes, empathy, behaviours and skills by age, sex and country, to develop European wide materials, which can be adapted to country contexts and replicated across groups.
The methodology adapts and innovates with personal witness and place-based learning with digital, virtual approaches to the curriculum of upper secondary school children in Europe. The aim is to promote personal engagement and skills of school children with past and present-day issues of discrimination.
The project extends and innovates these materials by installing them in the places where the events occurred, linking them to innovative film, documentary, witness and other materials. The materials include 2515 full-length testimonies of survivors and witnesses of genocides including the Holocaust, 1994 Rwandan Tutsi Genocide, 1937 Nanjing Massacre and 1915 Armenian Genocide.
The learning activities integrate co-design with writing short essays, building word clouds, analysing photos, making sound collages, constructing video essays and "Making the Museum" activities to be installed in the permanent exhibition. They expose students to the basics in research, effective searching, archival curation, ethical editing and digital literacy. In addition, IWalks have been developed to connect the materials and other primary sources, to physical locations with memories of historical events that took place on these locations. They have been implemented with school children covering 7 lessons on the site, Europe, resistance, gender and Emilie Schindler, film and media critique, genocide and international law, and co-design in "Making a Museum".
Innovation in the methods comes from combining proven, education testimony teaching with the place where the events occurred, and innovating with place-based and digital, virtual learning to extend access to five countries and across Europe. Surveys show the benefits to schoolchildren who have completed the materials include:
• 93% more likely to speak up against stereotyping
• 61% less likely to believe stereotypes are true.
• Exhibit a 30% rise in the highest level of critical-thinking aptitude on tests.
The project fosters a common culture of remembrance between citizens of different countries, focusing on joint activities between five countries Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Germany. This tackles global themes of antisemitism and discrimination but adapts them to local context by country, age and sex. Each of the components are also linked to present day issues in each context and how to stand up to discrimination now, with learning objectives.
In addition, issues of gender rights and local Roma populations (with the work of our partner Terezin Initiative Insitute documenting and educating about Roma Holocaust Victims) are addressed to support the global issues and initiatives of:
• EU Strategy on Combating Antisemitism & Fostering Jewish Life (2021-2030);
• EU Anti-racism action plan 2020-2025;
• EU Roma strategic framework on equality, inclusion and participation
The project addresses universal issues in a unique local place recognized throughout Europe:
• Linking place-based, local and community events with local, national, global and continental histories, and even in ruined form is visited by people from all continents, including China, Japan and Africa. The co-created project is also part of the regeneration of the village and an underprivileged valley with high unemployment and few jobs, providing local solutions.
• Tackles the role, representation and perspective of women, by reviving the role of Emile Schindler, and the Jewish, textile experts Otti Berger and Anni Berger, the first whose legacy we show also shapes our world despite her murder in Auschwitz. The materials and monitoring is continually analysed by gender, age and nationality to ensure co-creation of the museum which includes key gender equality analysis and generational issues so universal themes remain relevant to different groups and local contexts.
• The hybrid digital and place based learning provides European wide scope adapted to local context.
The extensive co-design process based on needs with the local community, the Czech Jewish Foundation, the Zachor and Shoah Foundations, and with public consultations and inputs in Brnenec, Brno and Prague, was completed in 2018 and 2019.
In 2020, the project implemented testimony learning activities with three hundred people from Brno and Brnenec. A train from Brno and transport from the local villages for communities to meet, review and co-design the plans and learning activities was completed. They also saw together the film Schindler’s List in the ruined factory where the events occurred, many said it was an unforgettable experience.
In 2021, the learning activities were implemented with schools from Czech Republic and Germany and adapted by age, sex and country context. This led to the first "Making a Museum" testimony based activities in Schindler's Ark in July 2022, and release of the iWalk. Original testimonies on Joseph Bau and Thomas Keneally were filmed, as well as a film "Absence" on the sustainable use of ruined textile factories. The end users in terms of teachers and students from Czech Republic and Germany completed six months of piloting of the testimony activities and training of local guides.
In parallel, Re-Fact specialised in the recovery of industrial heritage and community and environmental regeneration, representing architecture departments from five European countries chose the Arks as their European project in 2021. As part of this co-design the architectural plans were developed for the museum and site for testimony learning and approved.
In 2022, the project was awarded the EU grant Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Program (CERV-2022-Citizens-REM) with a remarkable evaluation score of 98/100 (review attached). This fully supports the completion of the learning curriculum and permanent museum by end 2024. Schindler's List will be shown on the site each week for a year to mark 30 years in 2023.
The project develops competencies on the sustainable development of museums, the role of textiles in architecture and museums, and new the european bauhaus in textiles. This is based on the work of Otti Berger and Anni Albers, the bauhaus textile designers of Jewish origin, one who survived and shaped modern textiles and the other who was murdered in Auschwitz.
The co-design activities "Making a Museum" with schools from five European countries include sustainability of the museum building, involvement of the community, and circular thinking in the site. The competency activities include measurable outcomes in relation to the European competence framework on sustainability.
Re-FACT specialised in the recovery of industrial heritage and community and environmental regeneration, represent architecture departments from five European countries, chose Arks as their project for 2021 and completed teaching with students from these countries on sustainability.
The "Making a Museum" co-design adopts a long term and full life cycle thinking – the project draws on life cycle and circular, sustainable processes in all stages, from the design, use of materials with recycled wool and of building materials on the site, energy with new renewable wind and solar power units, and modular units that can be rearranged and recycled. In addition, digitization is used in the museum and the response of textiles to heat, light and the environment in the buildings. Finally, the project extends circular approaches to technology itself, where nature is seen as the primary technology, in terms of wool, textiles and energy, and the community as central to the design, making, finance, maintenance, and renewal of the site. The approach is influenced by the sustainable development goals, “Towards the Circular Economy” (2013), the use of digital data in the museum with the EU 2020 project Cicerone, and the European competence framework on sustainability
