“Against Forgetting“ – study trip Görlitz – Auschwitz – Krakow – Dresden

14 youth and 4 adults want to learn and try to understand what happened 70 years ago in Gorlitz, Auschwitz, Krakow and Dresden. As preparation for this experience they will learn about “Jewish Görlitz“ and what took place there during the 3rd Reich. In Auschwitz-Birkenau the group will take a closer look at National Socialism especially its racial ideology and consequences. What happened at that time? How can anti-Semitism and hostility to foreigners be faced today? The participants want to find answers to these and other questions. In “Jewish Krakow“ the group will see how social life changed for the Jews, and the consequences for them in the Holocaust. In Dresden they will visit the „Frauenkirche“, the symbol of the city. After its rebuilding it became a symbol of peace to the whole world. At the same time the group will see the senselessness of war. The terrible destruction in February 1945 will show the unnecessary suffering of thousands of people.

The youth centre Baumholder (district of Bielefeld and the “youth cafè“ Kirn (district of Bad Kreuznach) will travel on this journey together. Both institutions are contact points for young people beginning from the age of 12. Beside pedagogical offers, the youth find also individual help with problems in school or in their families. The Memorial work project has become a central working area for both  youth centres.

In the youth centre Baumholder, 50 children can also find a place after school every day for lunch, homework, playing games and time with a ‘listener’,  what is not guaranteed in many families.