Project Team

This website and its contents were developed by young guides from Germany and Israel who are active volunteers at memorial sites about the Shoah. A total of 7 young guides from Israel and 13 young guides from Germany were involved. They were professionally accompanied and supported by our project team.

Experiences of the project participants

In this video, some of the participants talk about their work at memorial sites and their experiences in the exchange project. German, English and Hebrew subtitles are available.

The idea

The idea for this project was born during a visit of our project leader Jule Henninger in Western Galilee. There she met young guides from the Yad LaYeled Museum in Lochamei HaGeta'ot and the Western Galilee College in Akko and initiated a contact to the young guides from the Gäu-Neckar-Alb region in Southwest Germany. In many months of work an exchange could be realized in the end: The young guides met regularly in Zoom meetings, got to know each other and discussed historical and current political issues.

The exchange

In October 2021, the Israeli young guides were able to visit the participants in Germany. There, they all visited the various memorial sites in the region where the young guides work and went on excursions to get to know the region where many of the witnesses came from. The visible result of this exchange is this website. Through their research on the life stories, the young project participants were able to gain insight into the realities of the lives of young people who were persecuted, expelled and murdered by the National Socialists. Through their own intensive research and the interviews with contemporary witnesses, they were able to build up an individual, emotional closeness to the past. A small impression of this is to be conveyed in this exhibition.

Digital beginnings

Due to the Corona pandemic, our meetings could initially only take place online. We met at regular intervals via Zoom. In addition to technical input lectures on historical and current political topics, there was the opportunity to get to know each other and discuss with each other.

Bei unserem Wanderausflug in den Schwarzwald.

Visit and exchange

In October 2021, the Israeli young guides were finally able to visit Germany. During this week, we exchanged a lot about life in Germany and Israel and the differences in the culture of remembrance of the Shoah. Through the personal contact we could get to know each other more intensively. Unfortunately, the planned return visit to Israel could not take place because of the pandemic situation.

In der Ausstellung der KZ-Gedenkstätte Bisingen

The work of the young guides

Part of the visit was also a tour of the various memorial sites where the German youth guides are engaged. They showed the Israeli and German participants the historical sites and told them about their experiences in their work as young guides.