Memorial Trip Italy: „Border(less)“
Our most recent memorial trip took us to Italy, more precisely to Trieste, Padua and Venice, where we learned that the influence of the Nazi regime extended far beyond the German borders. The trip was carried out with a group of 12 young people and two supervisors during the period from 01.10.23 to 06.10.23.
Our journey began in Trieste, where we visited the Risiera di San Sabba memorial. We learned about the terrible crimes that had taken place in this former rice mill after it was first converted into a police detention camp and subsequently into a torture and distribution centre for Jewish people and political opponents. For most of the participants, it was the first time they had seen such sites of National Socialist crimes.
The visits to the former Jewish ghettos in Venice and Padua also left a particularly deep impression. Talking about the living conditions of the people in the ghettos, learning of their almost complete annihilation and discovering the corresponding Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) and memorial plaques everywhere deeply moved the participants and opened up many conversations.
In Padua, the former concentration camp „Villa Contarini Giovanelli Venier“ was also visited. A German-speaking guide informed us about the sad history of this place.
It was particularly important to us to establish connections to our own lived reality and to talk about what the things we learned have to do with our society today. The importance of democracy, tolerance and cohesion in our society was once again impressively brought home to the participants. We hope that we have thereby fully achieved our objective for this project, which was funded by the Landschaftsverband Westfalen Lippe (LWL).
