IWalk app: New digital learning programme against anti-Semitism presented by BM Polaschek and OeAD

Vienna - With the IWalk app, pupils learn about aspects of the history of the Holocaust at original historical sites using eyewitness accounts and other sources, and engage with the memory of it. "We are living in a time in which we are experiencing a worrying rise in anti-Semitic incidents and it is our duty to take effective measures to combat this. Education is an important key to a living culture of remembrance and an active "never again". The BMBWF therefore supports schools in their educational work on the Holocaust with innovative learning materials and projects. The IWalk app is a particularly innovative measure in this regard. With this app, we bring pupils closer to the history of the Holocaust in an impressive and age-appropriate way," said Education Minister Polaschek after the presentation of the new IWalk on Jewish life in Vienna's second district.

Education Minister Polaschek and OeAD Managing Director Calice presented the IWalk app together with experts at historical sites in Vienna's second district on 22 August 2024 and explored individual stations directly.

Jakob Calice: "In Holocaust education, location-based learning with digital tools has become increasingly important in recent times. Excursions to memorial sites are not feasible for all school classes. Regional and virtual sites have therefore become increasingly relevant. The IWalk app impressively demonstrates that learning processes can also be initiated in digital space. I am delighted that the cooperation between the OeAD and the USC Shoah Foundation, which we officially entered into in 2023, is already producing such concrete results. Austria is thus represented in the IWalk app together with 15 other countries, and already with three applications, one of which is at the Mauthausen Memorial."

Explore and learn with the IWalk app

The IWalk app is a learning offer from the USC (University of Southern California) Shoah Foundation, with which the OeAD programme ERINNERN:AT has been cooperating for many years. In international cooperation with partner organisations, digital tours are created that are already available in 16 countries (Europe, Canada, USA) and in many languages. The OeAD's ERINNERN:AT programme has already created three tours for Austria, one of which focuses on the Mauthausen Concentration Camp Memorial.

Education Minister Polaschek after the presentation of the IWalk app: "The stories told by contemporary witnesses in the app are moving and impressive. They reaffirm my clear stance against anti-Semitism: it has no place in schools, we can all make a contribution against marginalisation and anti-Semitism!"

Since the terrorist attack by Hamas on 7 October 2023 and the resulting war in the Middle East, there has been a massive increase in anti-Semitic incidents and violence in Europe. The challenges for Austrian teachers to counter this were already great before and will continue to accompany schools in the new school year.

"Learning about the Holocaust and the long Jewish history and present in Austria makes an important contribution to preventing anti-Semitism and radicalisation tendencies. We support schools in their prevention work with learning materials, and the IWalk is an innovative tool for lessons," concluded the Minister of Education.

Jakob Calice adds: "We want to continue our successful cooperation with the USC Shoah Foundation and develop location-based digital tours not only in Vienna and Mauthausen, but also in other regions of Austria and distribute them via the IWalk app."

ERINNERN:AT is the OeAD's programme for teaching and learning about National Socialism and the Holocaust and for the prevention of anti-Semitism through education. It promotes the transfer of historical and methodological-didactic knowledge into educational practice as well as reflection on the causes of the Holocaust and its consequences for the present. The IWalk app can be downloaded free of charge from the following links

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.illion.usc&hl=de_AT

Apple: https://apps.apple.com/at/app/iwalk-usc-shoah-foundation/id1176057571

Enquiries and contact:

OeAD - Agency for Education and Internationalisation
Ursula Hilmar
Press Officer
+43 1 53408-270
presse@oead.at
www.oead.at

Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research
Lena Wolf
+43 1 53120 - 5025
lena.wolf@bmbwf.gv.at