In the city archives of Schwäbisch Gmünd

Students and teachers from Poland, Belgium, and The Basque Country were welcomed on September 25th Sunday and brought to their hotel and the host families respectively by their German hosts. The Norwegian and Romanian partner schools were unfortunately not able to join the mobility.

Our first meeting on Monday, 26th September, encompassed after a first ice-breaking event an open discussion on integration and the current crises in Europe with the lord mayor of Schwäbisch Gmünd, who has formerly been the representative our federal state in Brussels. The idea was to exchange strategies on how to cope with that issue. Each delegation was invited and the discussion was very fruitful as it affected all schools in one way or the other. One student of the Parler-Gymnasium finally told us about her way to Germany, including crossing the Mediterranean Sea in a little boat. In the evening, a Barock dancing session brought us all together.

On the second day of the mobility, the visiting of the archive and a city tour with the historian Prof. Dr. Müller were on the program. We split the students up into two groups. They got insights of the work as an archivist and how to work with sources. Prof. Müller showed the students in accordance to the projects objectives places where people were tortured. In the afternoon, translated sources from the archive were analyzed in international groups and presented in the plenum. This workshop was also very interesting. In the evening, there was an event including a dinner where the schools introduced themselves. In addition, all host families were invited and our orchestra performed. On Wednesday, the delegations had a tour to Grafeneck. There, thousands of people were killed in a program whose intention was to eliminate weak and sick people. The students had a guided tour and workshops provided by experts as well. They stayed there for almost 4 ½ hours and learned quite a lot about “Euthanasia”. It is an important part of history as it also proves how inhumane the Nazis and also ordinary people treated Germans. On Thursday we had our evaluation of the project. For us, it was very important that everybody can utter his or her feelings. That’s part of our democratic system and necessary to create a sense for feeling important. Reflections are also necessary for us in order to improve our next plannings and steps. All activities are important to understand violence better and how to avoid it. The material can be used to exemplify what happens if people let organizations such as the Nazi-party come to power.

Please watch this video from the exchange: After movie from Germany