EUROPEAN MEETING CENTRE - NOWY STAW FOUNDATION
Our Project "Common past, common future: looking for a dialogue" won the award in the competition for German-Polish Youth Prize 2009 "To maintain the memory". The project was the polish-german-ukrainian youth exchange organized from 29 of March till 5 of April 2009 together with partners: German-Polish Youth Academy from Münster (DPJA) and Nasha Sprava Centre from Luck. The Project was appreciated by the jury composed by: german and polish historians, journalists, members of Bundestag and Sejm, representatives of both ministries of youth issues, members of Polish-German Youth Council and the Board of Polish-German Youth Cooperation. The prize will be presented on the next meeting of the Polish-German Youth Council on 28 of January in Wrocław.
The project "Common past, common future: looking for a dialogue", which was held from March 29th and April 5th, facilitated getting to know culture and history of our neighbours and was a platform for looking for a dialogue in discussion on historic, political and other important topics for all of three nations. Discussion and simulation workshops were a followed by numerous integration workshops and language animation. Among others the participants were considering in pro-contra debate (the Oxford debate), whether the EU should still enlarge, and within frames of history workshops they tried to tackle different aspects of history narratives present in their countries. Another important point of project activities was workshop on stereotypes: what are these and how to break them?
An important part of the activities was also a documentation of tracks of Ukrainian and German culture in Lublin which are part of the multicultural past of the city. The results of this work were publicly presented in "a moving exhibition", which appeared on the streets of Lublin on April 2nd. There was also a permanent exhibition in Dom Kultury LSM.
On 28 January in Wrocław the awards given by the German-Polish Youth Office for the best polish-german historical projects were given. The representative of the European Meeting Centre – Nowy Staw Foundation Malte Koppe received the award from the vice-minister of education of Poland and from the minister of family issues in Germany.
"The Meeting Place" Wrocław came as a perfect choice for the awarding ceremony of the 3. Polish-German Youth Prize sponsored by the PNWM. The prize ought to honor excellent projects in the framework of history conducted by youngsters. Already for the last couple of years, Polish Wrocław (the former Breslau) tries to live up to this year’s competition slogan "Keep the memory" (Zachować Pamięć). Some examples: Next to the Saint Elisabeth Church, you can find a monument dedicated to the protestant theologian Bonhoeffer, who was born in Breslau and the university adorns an exhibition on German(-Jewish) noble prize winners. And since 2008, Wrocław has a monument dedicated the no longer existing cemeteries of Jews, Orthodox and Protestants. About all this, the guests of the gala learned after the awarding ceremony during a knowledgeable guided tour by the Renata Bardzik-Miłosz, resident of Wroclaw and German Philologist. For some of the participants, however, the first encounter with Wrocław was not without problems. Their train arrived two hours late due to heavy snowfall which was too late to rehearse the awarding ceremony. But the organizers of the PNWM reacted in a very tempered manner to those unfortunate circumstances. In the course of the evening it turned out that a successful premiere does make up for a canceled rehearsal. Apart from the joint project "Common Past, Common Future" by the European Meeting Center - Nowy Staw Foundation Lublin, DPJA and Nasha Sprava from Lutsk (UA) carried out in spring 2009, four other projects had been awarded. The jury consisting of PNWM employees, politicians and journalists distinguished between school and non-school exchange as this division is a standard PNWM policy. The gala with more than 80 invited guests featured numerous highlights of very different nature. The pupils of R. Bukowski Music School, Wrocław played Mozart and so created a background full of atmosphere. Krzysztof Stanowski, Polish Deputy Minister of Education, beautifully proved that an international context can be the perfect framework for Polish-German reconciliation. He started his laudation on "our" project "Common Past, Common Future" in Ukrainian. His "excuse" came just a few seconds later - he stated he was born and raised in multicultural Lublin. One could just no think of a better way the Minister and guest of honor could have expressed his esteem for the exchange and his home town. Anyway, it were without doubt the self-written poems of four participants who took part in the first prize project "Language of the offender, language of the vicitim" ("Język Ofiar - Język Sprawców") that stood above all. Josephine, Marcus, Monika and Michał wrote their poems after visiting the former concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau where they talk to a witness who survived the camp. The participants had access to archived material, too. Participant Michał Eggert wrote out his fictional letter to a camp inmate: "I can’t give anything - only a few words scribbled down on my knees. You will bear it till death anyways - your Auschwitz- cross (…)". Remarkable words. During the recitation it was so quiet in the ballroom of Stara Giełda in Wrocław - you could hear a pin drop.
The charming host of the evening was the TV presenter Aleksandra Rosiak. Furthermore, she proved that the Polish national colors red and white belong to the rare group of flags in the world which suit a lady. The common project by Nowy Staw, DPJA and Nasha Sprava finally got awarded just before the buffet was declared open. Andriy Paliychuk, representative for the Ukrainian partner, told the audience how the participants of the exchange pretended detectives walking across Lublin on their mission to find traces of other cultures. osef Hecken, Deputy Federal Minister for Family Affairs, found appropriate words for the Polish-German history on the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp which preceded he gala about two days. Hecken underlined the continuous historical guilt and responsibility of Germany and the obligation to remember the terror of the Nazi reign. He pointed as well to the historical singularity of Auschwitz. Some might not want to hear it anymore, but during the awarding of a Polish-German prize for words of historical truth are thoroughly indicated. The old stones in the city called "The Meeting Place" definitely like to hear them, although they remain silent. What a pity, walls and buildings definitely would have a story to tell about the German-Polish relationship in Wrocław’s past - in the different languages of all the city’s ancient cultures. As guide Renata Bardzik-Miłosz noted at the end of the tour for the gala participants - Wrocław has a Jewish, Austrian and Bohemian past. To honor this heritage condignly, one should pay another visit to "The Meeting Place" (The DPJA would like to thank the jury of the Polish-German Youth Award and all the participants of "Common Past, Common Future". Special thanks go to the PNWM for donating the award and a gala full of atmosphere. Photos © Rafał Makieła)
More in:http://www.pnwm.org/html/index.php
The youth exchange was organized with financial support of the Polish-German Youth Cooperation.
