Remember The Future ensures that the Holocaust and its atrocities are remembered and commemorated by creating an intensive two week Holocaust education program. During this program German, Israeli and Polish youth travel through Germany, Poland and Israel to explore and commemorate together the horrors of anti-Jewish discrimination and persecution before and during World War II. They engage in an intensive dialogue on the historical events and one as well as the participants’ personal relations’ to the stories behind history as well as to the lessons to be drawn from it. In contrast to established German, Israeli and Polish programs that explore these issues in nationally homogenous groups from a national perspective, Remember The Future makes it a point to deal and explore these issues in tri-national groups. Offering to experience history through the eyes of the others, this approach ensures all three parties get an opportunity to learn about the other nations’ perspective of the Holocaust.
Remember The Future limits the size of its delegations to 20-25 participants to ensure that an intensive dialogue can take place. The program begins in Germany, the birth place of National Socialism, then moves on to Poland, the site of most Nazi death camps, and ends in Israel, the state seen as their home and refuge by the Jewish people. This itinerary ensures that the narrative of the Holocaust is told in a manner that reflects its historical development and aftermath:
Germany
National Socialism originated in Germany. It is pertinent that an international program dealing with the Holocaust also commences in Germany. Participants will explore the history and contemporary phenomena of anti-Semitism in Germany as well as different pedagogical and political approaches of Holocaust education in the country of the offenders including traditional and more recent methods in bilateral youth exchange programs.
Poland
The program part in Poland offers an opportunity to learn about the wealth of Jewish culture wiped out by the Holocaust, to visit the actual sites of the Nazi death camps as well as to find out more about contemporary anti-Semitism in Poland and Polish victims during World War II.
Israel
The visit to Israel is important particularly for the German and Polish participants, to experience the rebirth of the Jewish nation in its historical homeland that provides safety and ensures the survival of the Jewish people. This program part shall include insight to the different ways of exploring, preserving and presenting the historical lessons of the Holocaust and its political significance for the future.
Development
Designed as a large-scale model project, Remember The Future aims to become a program that youth organizations, educational institutions and initiatives can join. In 2008 Remember The Future is to consist of a model youth delegation as well as a workshop/conference for Holocaust educators experienced in German-Polish-Israeli youth meetings geared towards developing an educational manual for the program. In 2009 the initiative is to launch 5-10 delegations and in the following years Remember The Future is to grow further in the number of delegations and to include more European countries and the Jewish Diaspora community.
Moreover, the program’s unique leadership structure of junior and senior educators promotes the development of a new generation of Holocaust educators in Israel, Poland and Germany that has close personal ties to Holocaust educators in the other countries.