International remembrance workshop
Objectives of the activity
The 27th of January is the International Holocaust Rememberance day. Worldwide people are called to raise the voice and to remember the horrors of the nazi-regime and the holocaust.
On this day, young people from Germany, Georgia, Azerbaijan and other countries are invited to reflect on the lessons of the past and discuss on how the young generation can prevent future genocides and acts of hatred based on religion, ethnicity, or other differences.
In the workshop following questions are discussed:
- Why must we remember?
- What do we learn from history?
- How can we ensure that the lessons of the holocaust are not forgotten?
- How can we prevent that hatred is allowed to thrive unchecked?
- What can we do to live in peace despite our differences?
Additionally all participants are asked to participate in the global “#WeRemember” campaign.
Descriptions of the activity
The workshop was divided into the following steps:
- Welcoming the participants by the 3 coordinators of the project, short introduction about the project “Remember to act”
- Session A: Why do we need to remember?
Participants are asked to write in the chat their answers, while we collect the answers in a structured way on a white board
- Session B (Breakout sessions): What can we learn from the past? In each breakout session one young person from the German team shared a story of the victim of the nazi-regime and tells the others, why he/she was touched, what was special etc. Then participants discuss. The coordinators moderate the disccussions. Afterwards, the learnings from each group are shared.
- Participants discuss the following questions in breakout rooms: How can we prevent that hatred is allowed to thrive unchecked? What can we do to live in peace despite our differences? Each breakout room has to formulate on “Message to everyone”. All messages are shared by each group.
- Joint group photo for the “#WeRemember” campaign: everyone holding up a handwritten sign “#WeRemember”
Quote of an involved young person
“It is not my fault what happened. But it is my responsibility to prevent it from happening again” – Johanna, participant
Quote of an involved staff member
“I shared the story of Salomon Perel, who hid his Jewish identity as a member of the Hitler youth to stay alive. Only one person knew about his double live and tried to support him. These small acts of kindness were incredibly important to him. His story touched me because it showed that everyone can be deceived by the indoctrination of an ideology. And that people suffering from discrimination against them can be supported by showing them that they are not alone.” –Larissa, involved staff member
Photos
