Ashes in the Snow Screening and Workshop

Please join the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation for a FREE professional development opportunity for middle school and high school educators and members of the community.

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation is excited to partner with Harvard University's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies; Ms. Ruta Sepetys, the #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author of Between Shades of Gray; Mr. Marius Markevicius, director of Ashes in the Snow; and Penguin Young Readers to deliver a workshop to assist educators in teaching about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the Baltic deportations during WWII through the incorporation of the novel and film.

You are invited to a screening of the film Ashes in the Snow, the adaptation of the bestselling YA novel Between Shades of Gray; and a workshop focused on how you can use the movie and book to illustrate the historical significance of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Lithuanian deportation during WWII, and how they relate to current events. Workshop attendees will also have the chance to have a conversation with the Foundation’s Senior Fellow in Polish Studies, Dr. Włozimierz Batóg, who grew up in communist Poland and has directly experienced the transition to freedom.

This workshop will be particularly interesting to educators (and others) who engage and work with immigrant communities.

Based on the successful approach of its National Seminar for Middle and High School Educators (registration is now open, but hurry as space is limited!), the workshop provides content knowledge, pedagogic support, and peer-to-peer sharing to empower teachers in their classroom.

The workshop agenda includes:

* Welcome

* Screening of Ashes in the Snow

* Workshop on Between Shades of Gray and Ashes in the Snow as tools for teaching about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the Deportations led by Dr. Bessette

* Conversation with Dr. Włozimierz Batóg, a witness of Polish communism

About Dr. Włozimierz Batóg

Dr. Batóg is a Professor of American History at Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce. His past publications include monographs, articles, and book chapters on the Communist Party of the USA, Students for a Democratic Society, and the 1960s campus unrest. He is currently working on a book about Communist Party infiltration and influence among the Polish diaspora of Chicago and Detroit during the 1930s and 1940s.

About the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation is an educational and human rights nonprofit organization authorized by a unanimous Congressional Act, which was signed as Public Law 103-199 by President William J. Clinton on December 17, 1993. From 2003 to 2009, President George W. Bush was Honorary Chairman of the Foundation. On June 12, 2007, he dedicated the Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The Foundation is excited to partner with Ms. Ruta Sepetys, the #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author of Between Shades of Gray; and Mr. Marius Markevicius, director of Ashes in the Snow; as well as Penguin Young Readers to deliver this series of local workshops to assist educators in teaching about the Baltic deportations through the incorporation of the novel and film.