Students from three schools in Germany, Poland, and Ukraine took part in the “Youth in Search of Traces” seminar, held in Łańcut and Oświęcim in June. The event was organized by the International Youth Meeting Centre Oświęcim/Auschwitz (IYMC) and the Arolsen Archives.

Gemeinsame Workshops, Gespräche, Archivrecherchen sowie Besuche an Orten, an denen sich zu Zeiten des Zweiten Weltkriegs viele tragische Schicksale abgespielt haben, vermittelten den Seminarteilnehmenden Geschichtswissen anhand von menschlichen Schicksalen. Sie boten zudem Raum für den Austausch über die schwierige und schmerzhafte Vergangenheit, die die drei Länder als gemeinsamer Nenner verbindet. Auch an ergreifenden Bezügen zum laufenden Krieg in der Ukraine mangelte es nicht.

An extraordinary person

The students from Specialized School for the German Language No. 53 in Kyiv, Henryk Sienkiewicz Senior High School No. 1 in Łańcut, and Saldern-Gymnasium Europe School in Brandenburg an der Havel came together in Łańcut. Last year, students from Łańcut High School who had already taken part in the first edition of the seminar managed to trace relatives of Polish survivor Zofia Mościcka and return her personal belongings to them.

This year, in Łańcut, seminar participants learned about Tadeusz Szymański, a former pupil of Senior High School No. 1 in Łańcut who was sent to the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz. He survived the Second World War and went on to co-found both the International Youth Meeting Center Oświęcim/Auschwitz and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. Throughout his life, he worked hard to foster reconciliation between the younger generations of Germans and Poles.

“Grandpa would have been really happy about this meeting”

Tadeusz Szymański’s granddaughter Joanna Barcik and her daughter Karolina also joined the seminar. They told the young people more about the life of this extraordinary man. In 1946, Tadeusz Szymański and a number of other survivors went to live on the grounds of the former camp to help with reconstruction work. His granddaughter pointed out that her grandfather would have been delighted to see young people from three countries coming together to attend the seminar.

The Arolsen Archives hold a correspondence file on Tadeusz Szymański as well as several documents that provide information about his persecution, including some from Buchenwald concentration camp. The family had previously been unaware of their existence, and they were handed over to his granddaughter during the seminar.

After the meeting at the school, the participants went on a historical tour of Łańcut, retracing the footsteps of Tadeusz Szymański. The program continued with a visit to the Ulma Family Museum in Markowa, which commemorates Poles who saved the lives of their Jewish fellow citizens during the Second World War. In the evening, the young people took part in a discussion and workshop focusing on the experiences of young people from Ukraine as they live through the current war. This session was led by the seminar participants from Kyiv.

The International Youth Meeting Center in Oświęcim/Auschwitz.

The second part of the seminar took place in Oświęcim, where Elżbieta Pasternak told participants about the history of the International Youth Meeting Center (IYMC). Afterwards, Anna Meier-Osiński and Elisabeth Schwabauer from the Arolsen Archives presented the #StolenMemory campaign, the work of the archives, and the documentED portal. The young people were then invited to research the fates of three former concentration camp prisoners – one from Germany, one from Poland and one from Ukraine. They produced search posters and developed search strategies. The idea is for them to build on these beginnings and continue their work on the #StolenMemory project when they return to their respective schools.

The seminar participants also visited the town of Oświęcim. They were shown around by Mateusz Mika, one of the first IYMC volunteers to take part in the #StolenMemory project. He and a group of schoolmates have successfully traced more than 10 families since 2019. Their work was coordinated by Elżbieta Pasternak from the IYMC.

Learning about their own family history

“I have been positively surprised by this opportunity to work with students from different countries. It helps us improve our language skills, and through the workshops and the seminar we can deepen our knowledge of history as well as learning more about our own families – in a way, we’re actually discovering them,” commented Marcin Fołta from High School No. 1 in Łańcut.

His classmate Martyna Michno added: “It’s great to be able to work with young people from Germany and Ukraine. They’re very open.”

“I think our work will really make a difference and together we can do some good. It’s great to be here, it gives us the opportunity to try new things and become better people,” said Zofia Szmuc from Łańcut High School.

Asked about his first impressions, her classmate Oskar Kumek emphasized that the seminar was a good way to expand his own understanding of history. “This meeting makes us realize that history is not just something that happened in the past — it’s still with us today,” he added.

A clash of perspectives

“Meetings like this are very important. We learn about things from different perspectives – both the victims’ and the perpetrators’,” emphasized Lily Altenkirch from Saldern-Gymnasium Europe School.

The young people from Germany admitted to being surprised by how much they had learned. At the same time, they highlighted the emotional impact of the seminar, which used individual stories to bring history to life.

“[The seminar] is very special for me,” said Albert Wlodarski, one of the German students. “Because  we’re descendants of the perpetrators, we’re from Germany, and now we’re here together with people from Poland, in this place where terrible crimes were committed. And on top of that we’re here with Ukrainians, who are currently living through a war themselves. We’ve developed a very special bond through this project. It was very emotional to hear about these individual fates and personal stories. I hope we’ll learn a lot more over the next few days.”

“You learn so much here. There’s a strong sense of community when so many people from different countries come together. But emotionally it’s very intense, of course. Especially when you hear people’s personal stories and begin to understand what’s happened to them,” added Julia Lang from Germany.

Doing good together

When asked about the significance of the seminar in the context of the ongoing war, the Ukrainian students emphasized how much it meant to them to have the opportunity to meet their peers, learn more together, and draw lessons from history.

“It’s very valuable for us to receive all this information so we can avoid repeating the same mistakes in the future. It’s not always easy for us to be here, but we see the seminar as a very valuable experience,” commented Anna Mishchuk.

It emerged that Auschwitz and other concentration camps also played a role in the family histories of some participants. The opportunity to work with original historical documents enabled them to discover the fates of family members. “As long as we search for them and engage with their stories, they remain unforgotten,” said Kostiantyn Saveliev.

Living through war

On the last day of the seminar, the young people visited the former concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. After this particularly challenging part of the program, various discussion sessions gave them the opportunity to talk about their feelings.

For Anna from Ukraine, visiting the former camp brought back traumatic memories of the time when she and her family lived under Russian occupation and had to share a single loaf of bread between fourteen people. Another Ukrainian participant spoke about the fear she feels every time she has to say goodbye to her father, an officer in the Ukrainian army.

In the context of the ongoing war, the young people were eager to talk to each other and listened attentively to the moving stories shared by the Ukrainian students. The Ukrainians stressed just how important such encounters are and spoke about what it meant to them to be able to spend time together without having to worry about air raids or bombs.

We are very grateful for the fruitful cooperation and the generous hospitality shown to us, and we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to High School No. 1 in Łańcut, the International Youth Meeting Center Oświęcim/Auschwitz (Elżbieta Pasternak, Angela Beljak, Hanna Hüttner, Tomasz Kubiak), and the teachers  and other staff who accompanied the young people from Ukraine (Oleksandra Belshyna, Maria Iakovenko), Germany (Michaela Görlitz, Antje Kuhr), and Poland (Urszula Mach). We firmly believe that reconciliation, cooperation, and dialog build bridges of peace.