International Youth Camp at Mauthausen

Also this year, in the framework of a project of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. [Association of German War Graves Commissions] from 31 July to 13 August 2016, young people between 14 and 23 years old have met at Mauthausen and, guided by the motto “Destinies at that time and Culture(s) of Remembrance today”, spent time dealing with the National Socialist reign of terror and the life histories of the victims of the former Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Young people from France, Italy, Turkey, Mexico, Bulgaria and Germany helped with maintaining the site of the Mauthausen Memorial, and under the guidance of the Educational Department of the Mauthausen Memorial had an opportunity to deal with the history of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp, and also to learn dealing with each other as a group in human ways and resolving conflicts in a peaceful manner. Thus, the youth camps have a peace education character in keeping with the guiding principle of the educational work of the Mauthausen Memorial.

This year, the Association celebrated its 45^th anniversary of youth work at Mauthausen, and for the first time has organised an international youth camp at that site. During these 45 years, the Association has invited a total of 66 group of youths aged between 15 and 25 years from Berlin to Mauthausen, spending their summer vacations there.

Since 36 years, the school Knobelsdorff-Schule/Oberstufenzentrum Bautechnik I from Berlin has returned every summer to the Memorial. The international youth meeting of this year was concluded with a small theatre performance under the guidance of a drama teacher.