Project description
Duration:
1.04.2019–31.03.2021
Partners:
Lead partner: Memory, Education, Culture Foundation

Saxon partners:
Meetingpoint Music Messiaen e.V.
Internationales Begegnungszentrum St. Marienthal
Stadtverwaltung Görlitz
Förderkreis Görlitzer Synagoge e.V.

Polish partners:
Municipality of Zgorzelec
Zgorzelec Commune

Objectives
The main objective of the project is to create a cross-border educational network devoted to regional history, to improve linguistic and cultural competences, to shape civic attitudes, and to support the processes of mobility and interest in the regional labour market among students.
The objectives defining the main assumptions of the project are:
– to expand, diversify and support the cross-border educational offer for schools and extracurricular activities; to improve students’ competences in the field of multiculturalism, knowledge of the neighbouring language and mobility in the supported region.
– to improve the quality of general education and to deepen the knowledge about the historical and cultural heritage of the region; to arise interest in young people in the supported area; to develop didactic materials taking into account modern methods of information transfer.
– to overcome the mental, cultural and linguistic barrier through workshops and educational trips in mixed-language groups; to teach about the neighbouring country from a new perspective; to shape a cross-border identity and a sense of cultural and regional community.

Tasks
Among the tasks implemented as part of the project are:
– Development and implementation of a system of comprehensive educational activities in selected schools in Zgorzelec and Görlitz, the European Centre in Zgorzelec, the synagogue in Görlitz and International Meeting Centre St. Marienthal.
As part of this task, “Young Researchers of the Region” historical-social laboratories were set up in two schools in Zgorzelec, Primary School No. 5, and Secondary School Complex, as well as in the Augustum-Annen-Gymnasium in Görlitz. The young people working in these teams take part in cross-border educational workshops at the European Centre Memory, Education, Culture and will also participate in two educational trips: to the former POW camp in Zeithain, Saxony, and to Wrocław. As part of this task, the Lead Partner will also organize two international conferences on topics within the project’s concern.

– Reconstructing and developing new elements of educational routes to serve as educational stations in the former Stalag VIIIA. This package of tasks will include non-invasive research and protection of archaeological remnants of the former POW camp. A guide with didactic tips for the Stalag VIIIA memorial in three language versions and a folder about Stalag VIIIA in four language versions will also be prepared.

– Establishing an archive of Stalag VIIIA. Adapting space, adjustments to the regulations concerning archives, arrangement of the archival materials.
Acquisition of new documents in the possession of former prisoners-of-war families.

– Development and production of educational and informational publications to equip the Cultural Forum Görlitz Synagogue – a place of remembrance and shared cultural and historical heritage.