Meeting – Evaluation of The pilot program

Israeli Community of Volos

Saturday, June 29, 2019

On Saturday 29, 2019, the concluding-evaluation meeting of the representatives of the institutions, teachers and pupils involved in the implementation of the Pilot Program “The Narrative of the Holocaust through Art and Local History” approved by the General Secretariat of Religious Affairs of the Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs was successfully held in the Israeli Community of Volos.

The meeting was greeted by the Metropolitan of Demetrias and Almiros, Ignatios, the President of the Israeli Community of Volos, Mr. Marcel Solomon, the Director of Secondary Education of Magnesia Mr. Socrates Savelidis, the Director of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies Dr. Pantelis Kalaitzidis and the religious officer at the Volos Synagogue, Mr. Makis Moses.

The President of the Israeli Community of Volos, Mr. Marcel Solomon welcomed the students and the other participants and expressed his thanks for the work and the results of the whole project. Artworks, poems, and other works were exhibited in the Community's event hall and attracted the interest of attendees.

The students of the 1st and 2nd grade of the High Schools participating in the Program, shared the experience of their involvement and presented part of their creative work (poems, narration of short stories), spoke about their participation, and the causes that motivated them to understand the importance of the Holocaust and the consequences not only for the victims and their descendants but for all the humanity.

Significant and emotional was the report of the students who visited the concentration and extermination camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. They had the opportunity to respond to questions that they were asked with regards to their own sense and consideration of what they read, they saw and understood.

In addition, their responsible teachers, Mrs. Giannoula Zarkada (philologist) and Mr. Dimitrios Papanikolaou (theologian) of the High School of Kanalia, Mrs. Vassiliki Melissourgou (philologist) of the 3 ^rd High School of Volos, Mrs. Alexandra Mourtzi (philologist) of the High School of Agria, Mrs. Alexia Karavelou (philologist) of the High School of Scopelos, and the deputy director of the 8th High School of Volos, Mrs. Evgenia Kelepseia (who represented the absent Director of the School Mrs. Angeliki Gourou) presented their work and stressed the reason for their participation.

Finally, Mrs. Tania Avella (theologian), responsible for the implementation of the Program from the side of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies, made a brief reference to the selection of the subject and the philosophy of the Program, highlighting its innovative character, which relates to the structured opening of the school-group of schools to the local community by participating and co-organizing actions aimed at reflection, raising awareness of all the people, with the ultimate aim of revising the thought and behavior, as well as possible false pre-understanding.

A fruitful dialogue followed which emerged from a series of questions expressed by the community members on what they studied, saw, listened from the pupils, the teachers and the program's animators.

In addition, the organizers announced the official presentation of the whole event, to be held open to the public, in a hall of events in Volos, in October 2019.

To see the schedule of the project’s meeting - evaluation please click here
More Photos here