Course:

1. The facilitator introduces the participants to the fundamental issues connected with the human rights. The facilitator explains their origin and basic types, offering some examples that can appeal to the participants (the right to a good life, to a fair trial, to decide about one’s life, to happiness, to the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, to expression and speech, prohibition of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, prohibition of corporal punishment, and prohibition of punishing someone for an action that was not illegal when it was committed).
2. The facilitator encourages the participants to see fragments of the virtual exhibition “Radogoszcz 1945 – Testimony to the Crime” and asks them to pay particular attention to the parts “A City in Mourning” and “(In)Justice”. Their task is to find examples of human rights violations (as understood today) in the press coverage of the trials of Radogoszcz criminals and in the sentences and grounds of judgement issued in these cases. It is worth encouraging the participants to note the way these outrageous crimes were covered by the press at the time, presenting not only court documentation and facts, but also accompanying emotions and responses of the society.
3. After visiting the virtual exhibition, the facilitator initiates a discussion about examples of human rights violations in the context of the German occupation of the Polish territory, particularly in connection with the operation and liquidation of the Radogoszcz Extended Police Prison. The discussion participants provide specific examples of human rights violation based on the exhibition. Then the facilitator can encourage the participants to give some contemporary examples of human rights violations in situations that are analogous with or similar to those that occurred during the Second World War. It is also worth drawing attention to the sources of such phenomena in political ideologies and doctrines that propagate inequality, discrimination and intolerance, also in the contemporary world.
4. The facilitator can suggest a practical exercise to the participants. If the class is conducted in a traditional way – in a classroom or a workshop room – the work can be manual and it can be done using paper, writing utensils, coloured pencils, and markers. In the case of a remote class, the task can be performed using simple online applications.

When visiting the exhibition, the participants read selected press articles describing the crimes committed in the Radogoszcz prison and the trials. Their task is to prepare a newspaper front page informing about a selected instance of human rights violation in the contemporary world. To design the front page, they have to gather and prepare necessary information, obtain and describe illustrations, and come up with headings, subheadings, and leads that will be interesting to contemporary readers.

The front page can be prepared using such tools as:
https://www.canva.com – a magazine cover maker;
https://madmagz.com/ – an online magazine creator;
https://www.fotojet.com – a magazine cover maker.

5. The class is summed up with presentations of the prepared works. Their authors explain why the issues they selected should be publicised by the contemporary media. The facilitator can end with a conclusion concerning the universality and relevance of the phenomena underlying the tragedy of the Second World War and contemporary political and social conflicts.

Course:

1. The facilitator presents the basic information about the operation of German prisons and camps during the Second World War, drawing attention to the extensive ladder of prison functions served by both guards and prisoners. The facilitator explains the notion, functions, and responsibilities of the warden, guards, barrack wardens, and prisoner functionaries.
2. The facilitator encourages the participants to visit the virtual exhibition “Radogoszcz 1945 – Testimony to the Crime”, particularly part 4 “(In)Justice”, which concerns the punishment of the Radogoszcz criminals. The participants’ task is to get to know the conclusions of judgements pronounced against the guards and barrack wardens of the Radogoszcz prison after the war.
3. Depending on the number of participants, they are divided into an adequate number of teams with about 6 members each. The task of each team is to play the roles of participants of a different court trial. The participants can refer to the persons mentioned at the virtual exhibition: Willy Herman (a guard from Radogoszcz), Bolesław Komorowski (a prisoner functionary), Konstanty Mision (a prisoner functionary), and Adolf Orłowski aka Adler (a guard from Radogoszcz), or they can select other defendants from the postwar trials. Each team should include the roles of the defendant, the attorney, the prosecutor, the judge, and observers of the trial.
4. The participants get some time to prepare and then reenact the trial of the selected person. Depending on the role selected, during the reenactment the participants should present:

• Reasons for their choices made during the war (the defendant);
• Arguments in support of the defendant’s case (the attorney);
• Arguments against the defendant (the prosecutor);
• The sentence along with justification based on the arguments provided (the judge); note that the sentence should concern the reenacted trial, it does not have to agree with the historical facts;
• Constructive feedback about the positions presented by the above participants of the trial, referring to the quality, factuality, and reliability of the arguments put forward (observers).

5. After the end of the group work, the facilitator holds a summary discussion. The participants can share their reflection on the exercise. The discussion can focus on such questions as:

• Why not all judgements in the war crime trials were convictions?
• What was the most frequent line of defence of the defendants accused of war crimes?
• What mitigating circumstances justify (or do they justify) acting against another person?
• Are trials similar to those against Second World War criminals held today? What are the examples?

6. At the end, the facilitator can encourage young people to see the whole exhibition “Radogoszcz 1945 – Testimony to the Crime”, if it aroused their interest.

Course:

1. The facilitator, in order to bring out the previous knowledge of adult participants, can start by asking about a historical event that, in their opinion, shaped the collective identity of their generation / community / family / circle of friends. The participants can also provide examples of facts or events that constituted a kind of a generational experience to them (or their parents or grandparents), having an effect on their later attitudes and views.
2. The facilitator presents the basic facts about the operation and liquidation of the Radogoszcz Extended Police Prison as an example of an event that went down in the history of Łódź and became permanently embedded in the local awareness of its citizens.
3. The participants are divided into four groups with a more or less equal number of members. The task of each group is to see a different room of the virtual exhibition “Radogoszcz 1945 – Testimony to the Crime”. It should take them individually about 15-20 minutes.
4. Having visited the exhibition, the participants are once again divided into work teams so that each includes four persons that saw different rooms of the virtual exhibition. In teams, the work is based on microteaching. The participants tell other members of their team about the most important things they learnt from the exhibition, about the elements that moved them the most, and about the emotions provoked by the exhibits. The teamwork should take 30 minutes.
5. After all participants have shared their knowledge of the exhibition visited, the facilitator can initiate a discussion with the whole group, focusing on the following issues:

• Why did the Radogoszcz massacre become an event shaping the local identity of Łódź?
• To what extent, according to the participants, were those responsible for the 1939-1945 events in Radogoszcz punished for their crimes?
• What is the significance of memory of historical events for the present generations?
• How do the present (social, political, and lifestyle) conditions influence the shaping of the historical memory of the society?
• What can stories like the one about the Radogoszcz prison teach the contemporary Poles?

6. After the discussion (or after the end of the class), all those interested can see the remaining rooms of the virtual exhibition. A summary of the visit to the exhibition and participation in class can be the “Six-Word Story” exercise. In such a case, the participants’ task is to publish on the group’s forum or mailing list six words that they believe best convey the content, emotions, and experiences connected with a visit to the virtual exhibition “Radogoszcz 1945 – Testimony to the Crime”.

Course:

1. The facilitator can start the class by asking the participants about their most distant memory. It can concern their childhood, youth, parents, or siblings. It is worth asking the participants why they think this particular distant memory got stuck in their minds. What feelings is it connected with, what feelings does it evoke now?
2. The facilitator explains that our senses store memories connected with the strongest emotions – both positive and negative – for the longest time. This concerns both personal memories and those related to historical and political events. Referring to events that occurred during our lifetime, we mostly remember facts that were important or striking to us, or those that had an effect on our life. In the case of Łódź citizens who remember the war, an example of such an event is the burning of the Radogoszcz prison in January 1945. The facilitator can present facts about the operation and liquidation of the Radogoszcz Extended Police Prison to introduce the participants to the subject of the following activity.
3. The facilitator shows the participants selected elements of the virtual exhibition “Radogoszcz 1945 – Testimony to the Crime”:

• Room 1: “Material Evidence” – items and photographs found at the site of the fire – attention should be drawn to the visible burning traces; it is worth emphasising the personal dimension of these mementoes and the aspects of the victims’ everyday life that can be seen in the photographs.
• Room 2: “Recordings – Witnesses’ accounts” – 2 audio stations presenting accounts provided by witnesses to the Radogoszcz massacre selected by the facilitator. The participants can listen to them, and in case they have hearing impairment, the facilitator can prepare printouts of transcripts of these accounts.
• Room 3: “An Account of the Funeral of the Victims – the Polish Film Chronicle”. The task of the facilitator is to explain to the participants what the material concerns and to draw their attention to the emotions expressed by the people attending the ceremony filmed.

During the presentation of the elements of the virtual exhibition, the participants should be given enough time to get to known the materials. It is worth ensuring a proper sound system and printed materials with a suitable font size.

4. After the presentation, the facilitator can initiate a discussion with the participants, focusing on the following issues:

• Do they remember any stories about wartime events told by their parents or friends?
• Do they know anyone who took part in an important historical event?
• What important historical events do they remember from their lives? (The facilitator can suggest a few events, such as the rule of W. Gomułka / E. Gierek, the Martial Law, the Round Table Talks, Poland’s accession into the European Union, the Smolensk air disaster).
• How do they remember these events from their perspective? What were they doing? Who were they with? What was their reaction?

5. Summing up the class, the participants can be asked whether they feel they are witnesses to history and whether they think the events they took part in will be important to and worth remembering by the future generations.
6. The facilitator can encourage the participants to see the whole virtual exhibition “Radogoszcz 1945 – Testimony to the Crime”, if it aroused their interest. In such a case, it is worth drawing the participants’ attention to the functionalities of the exhibition that can make it easier to see it: a possibility to enlarge photographs, to read transcripts of the recordings, and to use a simplified map for navigation.