On the 24th August the ENRS office in Warsaw hosted its very first workshop for teachers: "From Individual History to Empathy. Collage as a Method of Working with History" - based on the story of Eva Paddock and the topic of rescuing Jews during the Holocaust.
The workshop introduced participants to collage as a creative tool for teaching about the Holocaust through individual, human stories, helping teachers translate historical material into empathetic, student-centred lessons.
This workshop was inspired by the work of Alison (Ali) Paddock (1962-2023), daughter of Eva Paddock.
Alison often created collages from old newspapers collected by others. One clipping caught her attention because it contained the word “Czechoslovensko” (Czechoslovakia), the country her mother Eva left for the UK as part of the Kindertransport. While working on the collage, Alison noticed that the word “love” appears within Czechoslovensko and decided to highlight it, linking personal history, loss, and emotion.
This discovery inspired Torn Lives, an artwork that reflects her mother’s story and experiences.
As this was the first event of its kind hosted at our Warsaw office, we’re excited to build on it with more workshops engaging teachers directly in the future. We thank all the participating teachers and our partners for an inspiring exchange of methods and ideas.
It was based on our Hi-Story Lessons educational materials dedicated to Eva Paddock’s story.
