„Never Forget“ – Memorial Trip to Israel
As part of our project, which took place from 18 November to 24 November 2021, we undertook an intensive memorial trip to Israel with 12 young people, which offered them the opportunity to engage with the crimes of National Socialism and with today's conflicts in the Middle East. The group was accompanied by one full-time and two volunteer supervisors, who relied on both professional and pedagogical support in order to provide the participants with a sensitive and reflective learning environment.
Before the trip, a workshop was held in which the expectations and goals of the young people were discussed. They also exchanged their ideas about Israel and their level of knowledge about the Holocaust. During the trip, each day was prepared and reviewed in discussions in order to enable the participants to engage continuously with the topics. Particularly noteworthy was the visit to the Yad Vashem memorial and other sites that dealt with the history of the Holocaust and the persecution of Jews. The visit to these places was accompanied by knowledgeable local guides, who brought the historical events closer to the young people.
A central theme of the trip was also interreligious dialogue and engagement with the Middle East conflict. Through the visit to Jerusalem and the discussion of current topics such as the two-state solution and the conflict situation in Israel, the young people were able to gain deeper insights into the complex political and social realities.
The project was intended not only to bring the historical injustice of the Nazi regime closer to the young people, but also to encourage them to reflect on their own behaviour and on how they deal with other cultures and faiths. The reflection on what they had experienced, in particular the engagement with the topic of antisemitism, was supported by the creation of a photo collage that documented the impressions of the trip and was exhibited in the association's premises.
The aim of the project was to win over the young people as multipliers for a peaceful, democratic outlook on life and to enable them to carry the knowledge they had acquired and the reflected values into their own society. Through the intensive engagement with the past and with today's conflicts in Israel, they were meant to recognise how important mutual acceptance and respectful interaction with one another are. We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to the Landschaftsverband Westfalen Lippe (LWL), whose funding made it possible for us to carry out this valuable project.
