Our travelling exhibition is now available for hire

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In January 2021, two British charities, The Together Plan and Jewish Child’s Day, launched Making History Together, a fresh educational six month programme, for young learners to explore the themes surrounding the Holocaust in the German-occupied Soviet Union with a focus on Belarus. This history is little-known.

Through monthly postal packs and online sessions, the participants immerse themselves into the rich history of Jewish Belarus. They explore Jewish life before the Second World War (known as the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union) and how that life was destroyed during and after the war. Thanks to The Together Plan, a parallel programme has been initiated in Belarus and this is enabling young people to explore the hidden history of their own country. Currently there is no official Holocaust education in Belarus and so this is a much needed initiative.

The concept of Making History Together was the brainchild of Debra Brunner, the founder and CEO of The Together Plan Charity. Debra has been working with individuals and communities in Eastern Europe since 2009, and has travelled extensively in Belarus. Debra has close contact with Holocaust survivors in the former Soviet Union, she has played a central role in bringing many personal stories on the Holocaust in the East to publication, and has done extensive editing work for publications managed by The Together Plan as well as for other published authors.

Leo Levine is the co-creator of the Making History Together Programme. He is a history graduate from McGill University specialising in the Remembrance of the Second World War in the post-Soviet period. Much of the content for the Making History Together exhibition was researched using primary source material with the input from additional historians, authors and professionals in the field.

We called the programme and exhibition “Making History Together” for a number of reasons:

  1. Very few people know about the history of the Holocaust in the Soviet Union. After 1945, the Soviet Union declared that all Soviet citizens suffered during the war, making it almost impossible for Jewish people to speak about their suffering or tell their stories of survival. Approximately 2.7 million of the six million Jews killed between 1939 and 1945 were in the Soviet Union. Understanding what happened to the Jews in the Soviet Union helps give clarity to understanding the Holocaust – a complex and difficult subject.
  2. Today in Belarus – there is no official Holocaust education programme.
  3. As a result of the history of the Holocaust being suppressed after the war (and no Holocaust education in Belarus) little is known about what happened in the country. Our programme is slowly being introduced in Belarus to enable young people there to start learning their own history. That is why we are ‘making history together’.
  4. In Belarus there was strong Jewish resistance between 1941 and 1944 and there were many Jewish partisans. For this reason, we believe that this is a very good place for young people to start their Holocaust education journey. In fact, we believe this is a great starting point for anyone’s journey through the history of the Holocaust, regardless of age.

Making History Together is about teaching the values of being a changemaker through the lens of history, specifically what happened to Jews in Belarus during the Holocaust.

Making History Together is about remembrance , it is a journey of discovery, it’s about learning how to be a changemaker, and exploring how to be the best version of ourselves. We do this by understanding history.

The programme and exhibition consist of six themes:

  • Generation to Generation
  • Identity
  • Power & Leadership
  • Antisemitism
  • Tikkun Olam
  • Memory & Self

There are six panels in the exhibition representing each theme encapsulating the essence of the programme. Discover the long-hidden history, and help put Jewish Belarus back on the map simply by knowing what was lost.

The Making History Together exhibition can, and we hope will, be viewed and appreciated by people of all ages

exhibition spec

The exhibition is easily transportable and travels in 4 padded holdalls.

There are 4 double sided panels in the exhibition and six topics:

  • Intro panel (1m width x 2.4m height)
  • ⓵ Generation to Generation and ⓶ Identity – (4m width x 2.4m height)
  • ⓷ Power & Leadership and ⓸ Antisemitism – (4m height x 2.4m height)
  • ⓹ Tikkun Olam and ⓺ Memory & Self – (4m width x 2.4m height)

Each panel is made of a stretch fabric sock which is placed on an easy to assemble metal frame. Each panel comes in a travel bag.

Estimated weight of 1m x 2.4m intro panel including travel bag 7.8kg
Estimated weight of each 2.4m x 4m exhibition panel including travel bag 15.4kg

To find out more about the exhibition, the hire costs and information on suggested layouts and workshops, please submit an interest form.