What does education on National Socialist injustice particularly need to succeed today? What role can a funding program such as the Education Agenda NS-Injustice play in a historically aware and democratic society? In search of answers, we talked to players from politics and society.
© Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland
Education on National Socialist injustice raises awareness of the need to stand up for peaceful social coexistence and helps to strengthen everyone’s democratic attitude. For young people in particular, this is important. Programs such as the EVZ Foundation’s Education Agenda NS-Injustice are especially worthwhile in times of a boom in historical revisionism and Shoah relativism.
There is a general need for a modern culture of remembrance and commemoration. Apart from well-prepared visits to memorial sites, digital formats that capture and process the stories of historical eyewitnesses will have to be developed, since survivors of the Shoah will no longer exist in the near future. What’s more, special projects on individual biographies can better impart the abstractly large number of six million Shoah victims. In this way, we are also creating an awareness of today’s antisemitism, which is hardly acknowledged by large portions of society.
Dr. Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany
© Fionn Große
More than any other place, the Auschwitz extermination camp embodies the Holocaust, the crime against humanity committed against 500,000 Sinti and Roma and six million Jews in Europe under National Socialist occupation. There is no Sinti and Roma family that has not suffered the loss of relatives. The National Socialist ideology of the “master race” drove Europe into the abyss. Remembrance of this has been branded into the collective memory. Commemorating this is not a transfer of guilt to today’s generation, but means taking responsibility for democracy and the rule of law. Our educational institutions must teach young people more about the reprehensible ideology of the National Socialist perpetrators so that they too can defend democracy and the rule of
law in the future.
Very few historical eyewitnesses are still able to share their experiences in person. Coming generations need to carry on as messengers of history, so the individual experience is not lost behind the immense numbers of victims of the crimes committed by the National Socialists.
Romani Rose, chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma
What do our partners and project participants say about their projects in the Education Agenda NS-Injustice?
© Johanna Becker/Gedenkstätte Sandbostel
Georgios, my father, was born in Greece. He was deported to Vienna for forced labor by the German occupying forces in 1942. This is
where he fell in love with my mother, Elisabeth, who lived near the camp. Their relationship would have had dramatic consequences if anyone became aware of it. Nevertheless, my parents succeeded in keeping their great love a secret. I was born in August 1944. Being the son of a forced laborer and a former politician, I feel obliged to do active commemorative work. Far-right extremism and racism are still very much alive in Germany and Austria. So why do we urgently need education on National Socialist injustice? Because this is the only way to educate young people to become “active anti-fascists” and prevent a further shift to rightwing positions in our countries. Resist the beginnings – never forget!
Volkmar „Hannes“ Harwanegg, former member of the Vienna Landtag and participant in the “They’re still here!” project
© David Ruano
Thanks to theater, we promote transnational memory work and examine lesser-known cases of persecution resulting from concrete
forms of resistance and collaboration in Greece, Spain, and Ukraine. By examining our traditions of remembrance from different perspectives and using artistic educational tools, we are creating European memory work as a shared experience.
David Rodríguez Peralto, president of the Fundación Teatro Joven, “Resistance & Collaboration: Landscapes of Devastation” project
Having our online meeting with Mr. Assael was truly a once in a lifetime experience. What particularly impressed me most was the passion, perseverance, and patience that Mr. Assael had demonstrated over the years to uncover the truth that lay behind the tracks of the Karya Rail Station. The encounter with the son of a survivor was a very thrilling experience.
Eleni Kroupi, pupil at the Steglitz Gymnasium [secondary school], participant in the “Deadly Forced Labor in Karya. German Occupation and the Holocaust in Greece” project
© Filip Hetzer
The development of a project in which young people are the main protagonists continues to be a unique experience. The world premiere of the contemporary opera focused on the “Vokalhelden” [Vocal Heroes] youth choir, consisting of almost 25 singers aged between 12 and 18. Music can transform young people into diplomats of culture, something that was a major aim of this project.
Anisha Bondy, play director/scenic design at Komische Oper Berlin, “over and over/vorbei nicht vorbei” project
What I particularly remember is the open and very personal discussion between Dylan Casteleyn and Marijke Callewaert, two relatives of Belgian convicts executed in the Wolfenbüttel Prison during the National Socialist era, with students from the Technical University of Braunschweig and the VIVES Hoogeschool Kortrijk. Prior to this, the German and Belgian students had spent several days in two seminars in Wolfenbüttel and Kortrijk. They used files and objects to take an in-depth look at the subject of judicial sentences and the importance of compensation for family members.
Martina Staats, director of the Wolfenbüttel Prison Memorial, “Eternal prisoners?!” project
