Crossing borders in history education: Reflections of students from Prague and St. Gallen on their conceptualizations of a virtual tour based on a Holocaust survivor’s transnational life trajectory

Abstract

The article was written in the aftermath of an international summer school held in Prague and St. Gallen in the context of the research and public history project “Train to Freedom” by St. Gallen University of Teacher Education, Charles University in Prague, and other partners. Students and teacher students from the involved universities developed didactical concepts for a virtual tour, a so-called “IWalk”, covering important chapters of the life of Holocaust survivor Petr Fiala, using excerpts of the testimony he gave to the USC Shoah Foundation in 1997 as well as historical photographs, maps, and archival documents. Fiala was one of the 1200 prisoners who boarded the “Train to Freedom” that brought them to Switzerland in February 1945. The aim of this hands-on student project was to develop an interactive educational tool for high school students and a wider public that conveys an actor-centered transnational migration history.