The Memorial as Extracurricular Place of Learning

The Memorial as Extracurricular Place of Learning

In order to become a lively extracurricular place of learning it is important to involve students from the beginning in the design and development of the memorial project. First encounters of young people with the Henri-Goldstein Haus have already occured.

To inspire students‘ interest in the learning opportunities of the memorial, specifically adapted programmes need to be developed. Students are meant to be participants in special guided tours or contributors or even collaborators.

Important subjects in conveying the history of National Socialism in schools are the effects of racism and exclusion, which have again become topical in our society.

So far there have been contemporary witnesses to describe to students what it was like to live in the Nazi era from a very personal point of view and thus convey the authenticity of what happened. Now, however, after the period of communcative memory, other possibilities of historical-political education must increasingly be explored. Educational partnerships between memorials and schools will be suitable tools.

Angebot von Workshops:
Um die Schüler:innen an die NS-Geschichte vor Ort heranzuführen, bieten wir einen 4-stündigen Workshop ab Klasse 9 an. Diesen führen unsere beiden Fachkräfte mit gedenkstättenpädagogischer Ausbildung durch. In einem ersten Teil wird in der Schule kurz das Lager der französisch sprechenden jüdischen Kriegsgefangenen, das ‚Arbeitskommando 1416‘ vorgestellt, das Thema Kriegsgefangenschaft und der Genfer Konvention über die Behandlung von Kriegsgefangenen behandelt, bevor die Schüler:innen in Gruppenarbeit 5 Biographien zu verschiedenen Fragen auswerten. Im 2. Teil geht es dann ins Henri-Goldstein-Haus und ins Himmelmoor, wo der Ort erkundet wird und die Biographien vorgestellt werden. Der Transfer von der Schule zum Henri-Goldstein-Haus wird in Absprache mit der Lehrkraft organisiert.

Bei Interesse wenden Sie sich gerne an bildung(at)henri-goldstein-haus.de  (z.B. zum Anfragen oder Buchen von Workshops)

The following formats might be envisaged:

• Creative workshops on specific topics, adapted to or as a supplement to the respective curriculum
• Training of student guides who, for their part, use their own perspective and language to inform younger students about the history of the site (in consultation with the other associations involved in Himmelmoor)
  
• Development of scientific topics on climate, fauna and flora around the Himmelmoor peat bog (in consultation with the other associations involved in Himmelmoor)

Further Research

Although most of the information we have comes from the former prisoner of war Henri Goldstein, the topic of forced labour in the Himmelmoor peat bog still offers a lot of opportunity for further research. Here we look forward to young people who want to look into additional prisoners‘ fates and thus enrich the future memorial.

Information on prisoners and prisoners of war so far is limited essentially to a part of World War II and the last years before the end of peat extraction. Extensive research, especially on the Russian POWs of the First World War, is necessary and will complete our information with the help of various research assignments.