White balloons as far as the eye can see. One balloon after another rises into the gray november sky on this thursday morning at the school center. The women's hang-outs carry an important message: for tolerance, equality, freedom, and against prejudice, exclusion and forgetting! The balloons have quotes from sophie scholl and dietrich bonhoeffer attached to them, as well as very personal lines from their senders, the students from different grades and types of school.
Two of them are sabrina and lea. The two eleven-year-olds attend the siegmund-loewe secondary school. They each chose a quote from the two people who were victims of the nazi regime and attached it to their balloons. On the back of the card, the women of kronach have written what peace means to them personally.
"That you don't bully anyone"
Both have chosen the same theme. "For me, peace means that you don't bully anyone", sabrina explains. Lea also wishes that everyone gets along well with each other and that mobbing no longer takes place. The two girls think the balloon campaign is very good. "Because it is important to remember and so that this does not happen again", do you think.
Sabrina and lea know the terrible events of the reichspogromnacht. Many other schools of their age or from other grades do not have the historical day at hand, or at least not immediately.
"Many bring with them the 9. November first associated the fall of the wall and wondered why it didn't become a holiday.", female EJA education officer andy fischer, who is sure that such "walls are still present in many minds in remembrance of the reichspogromnacht. It is all the more meaningful and important to remember the night of the national socialist pogroms every year. This is especially true this year after the outcry following the federal elections. "Back then, too, the "seizure of power" began insidiously, he appeals.
It's about communicating values
The joint action of the BDKJ and the youth spiritual center is not about constantly putting the finger in the wound. In his opinion, this does not help – especially with children and young people of this age. Here, in a different kind of dialogue, they try to teach the young people tolerance, humanity and cooperation. This is done by first attracting attention.
"For example, we were also able to hand out female roses – symbolic of the scholl siblings", explains fischer. In the end, however, it was decided to use balloons in this color. Fischer hopes that if the schoolchildren take them back to the classroom, a discussion will ensue, or the teachers will point out the special nature of the date.
Janina strohlein, who currently directs the youth spiritual center, is also convinced of the sense and necessity of the action. As she explains, some of the students had not yet dealt with the topic in detail in school. Others already knew, but perhaps did not necessarily think about it today. We want to reach all of them. But it is not only the date that is to be remembered. Rather, they also wanted to be a source of food for thought.
A different action every year
The action of the federation of german catholic youth (BDKJ), deanery association kronach/teuschnitz, exists since 2012. In the first year, they hung up large banners at schools and also in the city. An ecumenical commemoration with the two churches also took place in the synagogue in kronach. 2103 the young people distributed appropriate poster stands in kronach. In 2014, the day was commemorated by placing "sacrifices" in the city center of kronach put up foil-straw stickers on various footpaths or roads – symbolic of what happens when you kick human rights with the proverbial foot. In 2015, questions such as "how would you feel, … If you were tortured today? …. If you were robbed of your life today?, all day on the radio. Last year, a "wall against forgetting" was erected at the school center – also in cooperation with the youth spiritual center, what the schulmbachers could write their own headlines and thoughts about.
This year, the people decided to launch a balloon campaign on the theme of "seeing-thinking-acting – against forgetting", at which andy fischer and janina strohlein were almost overrun. These had picked out nine statements in advance of sophie scholl and dietrich bonhoeffer. The students were able to choose the slogan that most appealed to them and to think about what peace means to them. The cards then rose into the air with the balloons. The action took place until early afternoon at the school center, then on the marienplatz. A grant was available through the federal program "living democracy".
"Reichspogrom night" the night of the national socialist pogroms against the jewish people of 9. On the 10. November 1938 designated. They were a destruction organized by the nazi regime of facilities belonging to jewish citizens in the german reich. The pogroms marked the transition from the discrimination and exclusion of german jews since 1933 to the systematic persecution that culminated in the holocaust of european jews in the nazis' sphere of power barely three years later.