By MaryAnn Suhl, BA A Thesis In History Submitted to ... - Repositories

Texas Tech University, MaryAnn Suhl, May 2013
CHAPTER IV
THE “TEAMERS” AND THE WORKSHOPS
This chapter looks at both those who set up the curriculum and what they taught.
First, there are the “teamers” or leaders who are responsible for planning and
implementing the workshops for the IJB participants. The materials used in the
workshops are composed of various articles and information sheets that are compiled into
booklets that are called “readers”. Each component, both the “teamers” and the “readers”
needs to be analyzed independently in order to see how each of these approach the ways
that the IJB is defined as para-educational, as well as a grassroots initiative. This chapter
will discuss the practicalities of the IJB, the nature of both the teachers or “teamers” and
then the material or “readers” used within the summer program of the IJB to promote
Holocaust education and awareness. First, the “teamers” must be explained before
transitioning to the importance of the “readers” since the teamers are the people who are
responsible for preparing materials for the workshops and thus, creating the “readers.”
The “Teamers”
Understanding the function of the “teamers” is essential to the IJB’s work as a
para-educational experience. “Teamers” comes from their occupational duty as a leader,
but in the German language leader translates into “Führer.” Since the end of National
Socialism, the word “Führer” has connotations related to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, and
so the IJB needed a word that corresponded to the function of leader without using
German language. Even though the term roughly translates into “leaders,” they actually
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