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.

Workshop Offer:
To introduce students to Nazi history on site, we offer a 4-hour workshop starting from grade 9. This is led by our two professionals trained in memorial education. In the first part, the school is briefly introduced to the camp of French-speaking Jewish prisoners of war, the 'Labor Detail 1416'; the topics of prisoner of war status and the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war are also covered. Afterwards, students work in groups to analyze 5 biographies in relation to different questions. In the second part, participants go to the Henri-Goldstein-Haus and Himmelmoor, where the site is explored and the biographies are presented. Transportation from the school to the Henri-Goldstein-Haus is organized in consultation with the teacher.

If you are interested, please contact bildung(at)henri-goldstein-haus.de (e.g., for inquiries or to book 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.