The ZWEITZEUGEN-concept

In our workshops, exhibitions and events we sensitize (young) people to anti-Semitism and racism. They are encouraged to pass on the life stories of contemporary witnesses as second witnesses, to become active themselves and to take on social responsibility.

Our didactic concept

Through the special form of transmission with the help of the "heart-mind-hand" principle, we enable children and young people as young as ten years old to access the abstract topic of the Holocaust. In this way, we are facing up to our responsibility for democracy and diversity in our society.

 

01

HEART

Access through personal life stories: Through the individual life stories, (young) people get a low-threshold, personal access to history.

02

MIND

Knowledge and Understanding: They will gain knowledge about the Nazi era, as well as historical and contemporary anti-Semitism and racism.

03

Hand

Transfer and becoming active themselves: They link what they have learned with the present and their own environment. They are encouraged and enabled to take action against anti-Semitism and racism themselves.

Our impact goals

Heart: personal access through life stories

  • Strengthen empathy
  • Create a content-related, understandable and personal access to history
  • Arouse interest in the subject matter
  • Strengthen the personally perceived relevance of the topic
  • Sensitization

Mind: Gain knowledge about the Nazi era, as well as historical and current anti-Semitism and racism

  • Impart knowledge about the NS era
  • Understand and help to recognize historical as well as current racism and anti-Semitism

Hand: Transfer to today, to one's own life and become active as a secondary witness

  • To convey democratic values
  • Sensitize to (own) prejudices and anti-Semitic/racist patterns of thinking and reduce them
  • Strengthen self-confidence to be able to change something
  • Show the possibility of taking responsibility as a secondary witness
  • To encourage own projects / own commitment against anti-Semitism and racism

Part of our didactic concept is the option to write letters to the survivors. The letter from a young person to the survivor Rolf Abrahamsohn shows what the stories of ZWEITZEUGEN can achieve. Esther is one of more than 42,000 children and young people who have become secondary witnesses so far. She got to know Rolf Abrahamsohn’s story has empathized with him and wants to actively pass it on:

"Hello Rolf, I was very moved by your story. I can't say much about this subject, only that I can't imagine how bad it was. This eternal fear, this agony and experiences that you can not forget. I hope that something like that never happens again, but you can't say if the peace will stay forever. [...] I will continue to tell your story, Rolf."

Esther (13), pupil

PROJECTS OF YOUNG SECONDARY WITNESSES

The 6th graders of the Immanuel-Kant-Gymnasium in Dortmund produced the stop-motion film "Everybody is different" - against anti-Semitism and racism in the present. Feel free to watch and share it!

Other outcomes of children and teenagers from the ZWEITZEUGEN workshops:

Podcast of the comprehensive school Globus am Dellplatz in Duisburg

Online exhibition of the vocational school Senne near Bielefeld

Our target groups

  • Children and teenagers

    Young people are the foundation of our society and will play a key role in shaping its future. That is why our educational work starts at an early age.

    We believe that all people should (be able to) actively advocate for an open, discrimination-free society. Even though anti-Semitism and racism can be found in all population groups in our society today, they are not innate. For this reason, our projects are aimed in particular at children and young people over the age of ten, whom we reach in both school and non-school contexts. They represent the most important target group of our work, through which we want to lay the foundation for a responsible society.

    In doing so, we want to be able to reach all of the approximately six million children and young people between the ages of ten and 18 in Germany - especially those who do not gain access to a diverse society through their family and social environment, or who require low-barrier access due to limitations.

    Our prevention and protection concept

  • Multipliers

    Teachers, social workers and educators in historical-political education make an important contribution to a democratic society by accompanying children and young people.

    We are grateful that so many multipliers in (extracurricular) education turn to us for support. In their work with adolescents, they are looking for new methods and tools to convey the National Socialist era and its relevance for the present. They often have a strong thematic interest and show particular commitment in their work. As partners and multipliers of our project, without whom we cannot work, they are an opportunity for us to reach more children and young people in the future.

Our anti-discrimination guideline

With this anti-discrimination guideline, ZWEITZEUGEN e.V. aims to ensure that the organisation creates an inclusive and discrimination-sensitive environment for its employees, volunteers, members and partners (hereinafter referred to as ‘contributors’). ZWEITZEUGEN e.V. encourages and empowers (young) people to become second witnesses themselves by sharing the stories of Holocaust survivors and to take a stand against antisemitism and other forms of discrimination today. With this concept, we want to ensure that we also work together internally free from discrimination and marginalisation of any kind.