Looking for traces - our concept
Many youths feel oversaturated with the topic of National Socialism. It is often said that every young person should have visited a former extermination camp. But do they need to confirm to us once again how horrible everything was, and that all this may never happen again? This is really clear to most of us by now! So, what, for example, is the matter with a trip to Auschwitz?
We have several good reasons for such a trip. Films and books at home or in school are always only an expedient. To actually move around in a former camp is something completely different. Suddenly it is there – and it can be grasped. It is easier to reach „insights“. And we have the time to deal with the topic intensively. Then, questions appear that are relevant to the present: ‘How would I have behaved as a young German in 1940?’, ‘Would I have had the courage to resist?’, ‘How did such enormous crimes come about?’, ‘Were the Germans led by a small band of criminals?’ But also: ‘How much potential for evil is there in humans?’ ‘And how much in me, myself?’
Our programme ‘Traces of National Socialism’ is distinguished by several features as a unique contribution to political education:
- Learning at the authentic location
- Being literally touched by the topic
- Leaving the abstract world of learning with books, tables and chairs behind
- Being able to discover by oneself
- Connecting the group experience with an important topic
- Dealing with a topic a bit more intensive than usual
- Creating connections between the place of learning and one’s own environment