Coming to terms with Nazi tyranny and fighting racism, antisemitism, racism against Roma and Sinti, and homophobia are important foundations of our democracy and liberal society. The 'Young People Remember' federal program aims to provide greater support for commemorative institutions and the remembrance of Nazi injustice and enable more young people to engage with history. The EVZ Foundation implements internationally oriented parts of the 'Young People Remember' federal program with funding from the Federal Foreign Office.
International youth encounters contribute significantly to the personal development of young people. They offer the opportunity to change perspectives and engage in dialogue, foster empathy, participation and social commitment. Based on these premises, transnational learning at historical sites of Nazi persecution and annihilation as well as multiperspectivity as prerequisites for the development of a European culture of remembrance are at the center of the YOUNG PEOPLE remember program.
The 'YOUNG PEOPLE remember' funding program consists of three lines of funding:
1. Bi- and multilateral youth encounters at historical sites of National Socialist persecution and extermination
By promoting international encounters between young people, the program aims to strengthen factual knowledge of the causes, developments, and dimensions of National Socialist crimes. Through personal encounters at historical sites and engagement with historical events and experiences, the EVZ Foundation also strives to contribute to strengthening the European idea. Developing and testing new methods and formats for encounters between young people is the focus of this funding line. The relevance of history and historical awareness as well as their relationship to young people’s everyday life today plays a key role in the projects.
2. International Exchange of Expertise
International youth encounters at authentic sites of National Socialist persecution allow participants to learn about history while relating it to present times in intercultural settings and specific, sustainable ways. However, they also represent a particular challenge for teaching staff and pedagogues from both the formal and non-formal education sector. Therefore, projects funded in this funding line develop exemplary innovative (also digital or hybrid) methods and formats of political-historical education in international contexts with low-threshold and low-discrimination approaches. In this context, participation and equitable access to educational resources are also addressed as key challenges in an increasingly heterogeneous society.
3. Digital formats
The provision of knowledge and information and the critical examination of National Socialism are increasingly being carried out via digital formats and channels today. The funding line ‘Digital Formats’ fosters the development of blended learning concepts for international youth encounters, virtual services for concrete memorial sites, (prototypes of) serious games, apps and tools that combine digital methods with authentic places and historical experiences. In result, the applications offer individual and low-threshold, playful or creative approaches to the topic of NS history and the Holocaust. Participation and target group orientation are the program’s guidelines here as well. The EVZ Foundation thus strengthens approaches to address educational challenges of the digital age and enables the implementation, testing, evaluation and further development of digital formats of a culture of remembrance on a European scale.
The organizations and participants of the 25 projects funded in the program come from more than 15 countries. This unique geographical range is matched by a broad spectrum of historical sites where the projects are taking place – including concentration and extermination camps, forced labor camps. mass execution sites, Jewish ghettos, etc. In line with the program’s objectives, the focus is also on almost unknown or hitherto unmarked memorial sites as well as often forgotten groups of victims of Nazi persecution such as Sinti and Roma, prisoners of war, forced laborers and victims of Nazi ‘euthanasia’ murders – and this far beyond Germany.
„Code Viking 1942-2021“
Vajswerk e.V. Recherchetheater Berlin, Germany
Narvik War and Peace Center, Narvik, Norway
Center for Public History Belgrad, Serbia
On a train journey from Narvik via Berlin to Belgrade, young people reappraise the history of containment, forced labor and death camps in Norway, Germany and Serbia. This interdisciplinary and artistic youth research project is committed to the concept of "secondary testimonies" and makes particularly the European dimension of Nazi persecution visible.
„Mazewa – Mapping Jewish life and death in the Zittau region“
Hillersche Villa gGmbH Großhennersdorf, Germany
Jüdische Gemeinde Liberec, Czech Republic
In the German-Polish-Czech borderland, young people explore the Jewish history of the region. They reconstruct traces of Jewish life even before 1933, bring the Jewish cemetery in Zittau back into the consciousness of the local community and render it accessible as a digital memorial for an international audience.
„Keep the memory alive“
Max-Windmüller-Gymnasium Emden, Germany
Nadav Democratic School Modi'in, Israel
During two encounters German and Israeli students develop concepts and strategies for a culture of remembrance in a time when no survivors are left to tell the story of the Holocaust. By involving (descendants of) survivors, the project gains an exemplary intergenerational dimension.
„From History to Modern Society – Teachers to Youth“
Ghetto Fighters‘ House, D.N. Galil Maaravi, Israel
KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau, Dachau, Germany
Teachers from Germany and Israel discuss and develop approaches, instruments, concepts and methods for working with culturally heterogeneous youth groups at historical sites and in (history) classes. A digital platform and virtual interactive tours are developed in the project. The project stands out due to strong contemporary references to subjects such as democracy, human rights, discrimination and racism.
„Educating youth on forced labor during the Third Reich: A European discussion“
Memorial de l'internement et de la déportation Camp de Royallieu, Compiégne, France
Gedenkstätte für die Opfer des KZ Langenstein-Zwieberge, Halberstadt, Germany
Dokumentationszentrum NS-Zwangsarbeit Berlin, Germany
Forced laborers have been a less noticed group of victims of the NS. Together, pedagogues from formal and non-formal educational institutions work out new – also digital or hybrid – approaches, methods and materials on the subject of "NS forced labor" for educational work with young people. The project results are directly implemented by the participating memorial sites to further develop and expand their educational resources.
Mediel asbl, Wavre, Belgium
Jewish Resistance Museum, Novogrudok, Belarus
Gedenkstätte Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz, Berlin, Germany
Exemplary using two very different historical sites - the Haus der Wannseekonferenz in Berlin and the camp of the Bielski Partisans in the Naliboki Forest near Novogrudok in Belarus - the performative, participatory concept of a "living monument" will be developed and discussed. The approach can be used in other museums and memorial sites as well as in international youth encounters.
„Virtual tour for multi-perspective exploration of the memorial site Maly Trostenets“
Internationales Bildungs- und Begegnungswerk „Johannes Rau“, Minsk, Belarus
Universität Osnabrück, Germany
University of Vienna, Austria
Students from Minsk, Osnabrück and Vienna will work out a virtual tour of the Trostenets Memorial near Minsk in Belarus with the support of experts. Through the app, young people can independently explore the history of the memorial and destruction site. Committed to transnational learning and multiperspectivity, important historical-didactic approaches and digital formats are being developed here, which have the potential to establish references to the lifeworld of young adults.
„Ester – educational graphic novels about Nazi persecution“
Terraforming South, Novi Sad, Serbia
Kreuzberger Initiative gegen Antisemitismus e.V., Berlin, Germany
In Serbia, a meta-tool for the creation of graphic novels is developed, which in principle can be used at any historical site of Nazi persecution for biographical work on individual fates. The medium of digital graphic novels is exemplary for a modern approach in (international) (youth) education work, which allows for an emotional-creative discussion in a language-reduced and low-threshold way and thus fosters self-determined learning processes.
„Serious Role Play November 1939“
Living Memory, Prague, Czech Republic
Charles Games Prag, Czech Republic
Gedenkstätte und Museum Sachsenhausen, Germany
An international cooperation of educational organizations and actors from the digital society in the field of civic tech is developing a serious game as a role play on the topic of the student protests in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in November 1939. The game is based on historical-archival material such as video interviews and takes a biographical-family-historical approach to promote a clear positioning among the players to oppose mechanisms of exclusion of minorities.