During the international meeting in Auschwitz the participants took part in a workshop about the culture of remembrance in their countries. The "World Café" connected diverse perspectives and explored questions that matter. People discussed and answered issues in small groups of different nations and different ages.
The main problem of discussion was: how the society and the mass media deals with the culture of remembrance. “After the end of World War II the German national identity broke down. And it has never been recovered since then. There was a feeling of deep shame and fear to show any sign of patriotism. The first time you could see again German flags and hear the hymn was in 2006, when the soccer world championship took place in Germany”, explained a young German. On the paper to make notes about the results of discussion someone noted down: “In order to have an identity, you need to have history. In order to make history you need an identity.” The Israeli guests described that the memory of the Holocaust has a very big effect on the Israeli identity. Many people know someone who survived. Every year there is a national memorial day that effects everybody. And from the Russian visitors you could learn that the victory in the Second World War is the greatest proud of ex-soviet union. Important is that now in Russia and other post soviet union countries historians start to work on the topic of Holocaust, because not every fact about this period is known. In Poland nowadays culture of remembrance is popular – people can talk about it and there is possibility to do something and not to forget. “The knowledge about past makes us built present and future. We can only create our national identity when we remember about past events.”, is the final result.
One interesting question during the evening was: how are topics such as World War II, the National Socialist ideology, and the Holocaust taught in your history classes. Answers were different. In Israel, for example, all these three topics are connected. It is very important to know this theme really good. Everybody must learn it. After few weeks of learning about it there is an exam. Government helps to remember about the Holocaust - every year there is memorial day. In Polish education there is more information about the effects than the causes of World War II. Too little is said about the Nazi period. There are special educational programs for teachers, pupils have to visit memorial places. The topic is taught not only on history classes – also on literature and art classes. Problem with this topic was during the communism period in Poland - different story was at home, different at school. Now it has changed.
In Russia the greatest day is the Soviet Victory Day (9 May). National Socialist ideology, and the Holocaust are examined from a political point of view and it is a really hard question in Russia nowadays. Anniversaries are celebrated, but not in a state school, but in the youth organizations (like NGOs). Young people from Germany are divided. For some of them lessons are interesting. There are movies and radio broadcasts in this topic and, of course, they can read a lot of facts about this period in books. Some of them wants to know more. We can meet a lot of Germans on voluntary program services in different places in Poland, which are associated with Holocaust.
The question, how can forms of remembrance and commemoration that do not serve forces of political and national exploitation be created and developed, shows different possibilities. International dialogue and interviews with surviving witnesses must be documented and archived, for example in the internet. Education and transposition between generations, pluralism and multiplicity are very important. And all that can be triggered during an international discussion over a cup of coffee.
Anna Reinhardt
Katarzyna Gasińska
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