Never Forget: Buchenwald

CODE: VJF/ESC 6.3

Work:

The main project for the practical work will be on the “Buchenwald Railway Memorial Trail” where you will work for the preservation and maintenance of the former railway path. In addition, you will take part in a remembrance project when you produce memorial stones that commemorate children and young people who were deported to the concentration camp of Auschwitz and murdered there. Further information can be found here: www.buchenwald.de and (in German) http://www.gedenksteine-buchenwaldbahn.de/content/homepage.html

Study part
The program will focus on the National Socialist history (i.e. on the concentration camp system, the NS ideology and the NS society) and its effects and consequences until today. The responsible pedagogical assistant of the Memorial will show you the remains and explain to you the history step-by- step of the former camp, through different tours on the site. Moreover, you will visit exhibitions and watch documentary movies, and those who would like to may work with materials from the library or the archive. Furthermore, we can discuss the memorialization in Germany and your countries to exchange our country-specific perspectives on these historical events, also beyond 1945.
If you like: please bring interesting photos and materials to explain your country-specific perspectives to the other participants.
Open spaces can be organized, for example to discuss current social issues like racism or neo- fascism. In an excursion you will discover the history of the city of Weimar.

Accomodation and food

You will stay in the International Young People’s Centre, situated on the area of the former concentration camp. You will share the room with 2 volunteers. Sanitary facilities including showers are in the rooms. You will not need any sleeping bag or bed linen.
We will cook together and therefore we need some great ideas and recipes to prepare your daily meals. The accommodation is only available during the camp period.

Location and leisure

The free time activities will be decided by the group's interests and wishes. Weimar is a student and tourist city and has many leisure facilities. There are some possibilities to go out in Weimar, such as going to the theatre, exhibitions or to concerts. The city is famous for its museums of German cultural history, including the famous poets Goethe and Schiller and the Bauhaus architecture or the Weimar Republic. There are plenty of possibilities like going for walks in the woods, going swimming , etc.In the youth center there is a media room for music and film. The volunteers can do handicrafts in the arts room. In the building we have table tennis.

Project hosted by

The volunteers will work at the memorial site of the former concentration camp of Buchenwald. It is located upon a hill around 10 km from Weimar, the city where Goethe and Schiller worked and lived. In the 1920’s the Nazi movement had already many supporters in the region. Today, the site of the Memorial is a cemetery, evidence for the crimes which were committed in Buchenwald, a place of grief and commemoration for the victims and a place of historical and political education and information outside the school-system.

Directions to meeting point

When you arrive by train in Weimar, there is a bus station in front of the train station. The bus No. 6 or No. 4 go every hour to the Buchenwald Memorial/ Gedenkstätte Buchenwald.
Please arrive on Sunday, 16st August, in the afternoon at 4 or 5 pm in the Memorial.
(Busses in the afternoon: 2:50 p.m. the No. 4, 3:50 p.m. the No. 6, 4:50 p.m. the No. 4 and the last bus at 5:50 p.m. the No. 6) Opposite the bus stop on the other side of the parking lot you can find the building of the International Youth Center. There are also always taxis waiting in front of the train station, so in the worst cases you can go by taxi to “Gedenkstätte Buchenwald”. Please also have a look at: www.bvg.de (for travelling in Berlin) and www.bahn.de (for travelling in Germany by train). Both sites are also available in English.

Additional comments

This project is supported by the program European Solidarity Corps for young people between 18 and 30 years. It is open to all volunteers that fit the ESC criteria.