A Review of the Symposium "Memory Work in Youth Education" at Schaubühne Berlin

How can antisemitism-sensitive youth education succeed in everyday school life, which is often characterized by scarce (time) resources? What support do teachers need to address antisemitism, racism or queer hostility? And why does media literacy play a crucial role here? School and specialist educators looked at these and other questions during the symposium at the end of June at Schaubühne which was funded as part of the youth theater project "stolpern" in the context of Education Agenda NS-Injustice.

To kick off the event, teachers shared their experiences of discrimination in the classroom and schoolyard in a "World Café." They then jointly identified areas for learning and fields of activity. In two parallel workshops, the focus was then on topic-specific work: Under the title "Hate in the Class Chat" participants worked together with Charlotte Lohmann and Eva Schwarz from the Amadeu Antonio Foundation's "FIREWALL" project to develop possible ways to combat digital forms of hate. They asked themselves the specific question: What are the risks of class chats on messenger services such as WhatsApp? In the workshop led by the Jewish Museum Berlin, the goal was to respond to concrete and potentially antisemitic scenarios in the classroom. What action does a particular case require – brief classification, a discussion, or perhaps more extensive instructional measures?

The event concluded with a panel discussion with Dr. Verena Haug (Anne Frank Zentrum Berlin), Fernando da Ponte (Hermann Hesse Gymnasium Kreuzberg) and Leonore Martin (EVZ Foundation). Moderated by Mai-An Nguyen, head of theater education at Schaubühne, participants reflected on the symposium, discuss results and put questions to the panel. Summary: An stimulating event that all participants – and many other people – used for networking and for a lively exchange.