How can the horror of the Holocaust be made comprehensible to children and young people today? One answer is provided by the "Heimatsucher" project, which is aimed at schools nationwide - and is now being incorporated into teacher training programmes in Oldenburg.
It was a shock - and at the same time a moment that released strength. With the sudden death of Siegmund Pluznik, Katharina Spirawski and her fellow members of the "Heimatsucher" project not only lost a member of the association and a friend. They also ended the life story of a Holocaust survivor, whose story they have made it their mission to tell. The Oldenburg doctoral student was and is of course aware that the witnesses to the Shoah are now reaching an advanced age. Nevertheless, the 91-year-old's death came as a surprise to her, especially as he had spoken to her on the phone shortly beforehand.
Katharina Spirawski (formerly Hermes), who has been a research assistant in religious education for a year, thinks back to the funeral frequently. This turning point once again made her realise the mission of her association: "We really are the last generation that can still meet these people. If we don't do this now, it's over. Then no one will do it anymore and the stories will eventually be lost." Spirawski is certain: Siegmund Pluznik would want the "home seekers" to continue - and "do even more". In a way, it is also his legacy that she is now taking the initiative to the University of Oldenburg and the region.
Listening and becoming a "second witness"
The "Heimatsucher" began as a student project. Two of Spirawski's friends travelled from Münster to Israel in 2011 to meet Holocaust survivors. It was only afterwards that they came up with the idea of turning the biographies into exhibitions on the one hand and, on the other, offering pupils from year four upwards a different kind of lesson. The new Oldenburg resident, then a student teacher in Osnabrück, helped develop the didactic concept. The core idea is that by engaging with contemporary witnesses and their stories of survival, people become "second witnesses". It is based on a quote from Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel: "We who listen can become witnesses." In this way, the "Heimatsucher" endeavour to give the history of the Holocaust a face, beyond abstract facts and figures, and to empower young people against racism.
The "Heimatsucher" have now met 25 contemporary witnesses, many of them in Germany, and are passing on their stories. With 16 exhibitions across Germany so far, they have turned 12,000 people into "second witnesses" and 3,500 more during school visits. The association was founded in 2014 by a handful of young people and now has 75 volunteers. It has already received several awards, including from the Federal Agency for Civic Education, Chancellor Angela Merkel and, most recently, the Israel Foundation in Germany.
In Oldenburg, Spirawski is now planning another exhibition together with some students on a voluntary basis in order to publicise the "Heimatsucher" in the region. The topic of "Holocaust education" is also reflected in her research for her dissertation - and in her teaching: on the one hand, she is planning a student excursion to the former Auschwitz concentration camp, where references can also be made to the biographies of the survivors she knows. On the other hand, Spirawski has been offering a project under the umbrella of the "Villa GeistReich" teaching-learning laboratory since January: At the interface of history-theology-ethics, students can develop a concept of Holocaust education for the region and later help implement school projects.
"What always moves us is injustice"
These differ depending on the year group. But it is always about an emotional approach to the topic. "When I go into school classes, for example, I tell the story of a survivor in great detail. What it was like to meet him, what kind of person he was for me," says Spirawski. She and her fellow campaigners always went there with a huge amount of respect, for example to sit opposite a "nice old gentleman", "with whom you laugh and cry, who brings out wine and biscuits, who also cooks for you". She would later tell the pupils about "what he experienced before the Shoah, what it was like to be persecuted - and to carry on afterwards. Perhaps having lost everything and still not giving up." For many survivors, the fact that someone else continues to tell this story is also a huge relief emotionally.
The "Heimatsuchern" are not just about the 13 years of National Socialism, but about an entire biography that offers many moments of identification. "What always moves us is injustice. When we tell younger pupils about a contemporary witness who was really good at school and only got straight A's, and then a teacher came along and said that Jews are all stupid and only made sixes out of them: the children can't understand that at all, it's so unfair from their point of view!" But she also realises that pupils who have perhaps already been through a lot themselves can also draw hope from the biographies, says Spirawski. "To say, okay, they've been through really bad things, but they've somehow managed to carry on, managed to start a family, got a job - I can do that too."
The children and young people can then express their thoughts and feelings in a letter to the contemporary witness whose "second witness" they have become. "This brings the topic back to a level that makes it really tangible," explains Spirawski. The letters usually contain the simple message "it's nice that you survived" or "how good that you still had a life". This empathy from the children was something that really moved the survivors. Spirawski recalls the statement of a contemporary witness: "For so many years I didn't feel seen as a human being, now I'm seen as a human being."
