Dealing with German History: A three-day trip with ESN Deggendorf

At first we promoted the event on our instagram account and on our WhatsApp group. After not finding that many people, we send the information to the university emails which made us have a higher impact. 

The event had three phases:

The first one was the Stumbling Stone Tour where students learned about some background information about the Holocaust and Anti-Semitism in Germany. We gave them the opportunity to discuss about the importance of history and how all of this is connected to the current social challenges. As well we gave them some basic rules that they needed to follow in the camp visit and we talked about their expectations for that visit.

The second phase of the visit was the Dachau Concentration Camp visit. Sadly, the Deutsche Bahn made us come late so we were not able to do as many of the things planned. But the guided tour was better than expected and a lot of questions were raised and asked by the participants. On our way back we tried to encourage some discussions and group talks about what we saw and what we learned. We emphasize talks about individual stories which made everyone realized the closeness to xenophobia and racism in our own lives.

Sadly, the third event had to be canceled due to lack of participation. But the objectives of this part were covered in the second phase by the participants. A few days after the students let us known that now they are able to recognize the signs of xenophobia and racism in a better way and that now they know how to say something and how to encourage everyone to recognize those things.