youth seminar: call for participants from Israel

Memory and commemoration in the era of Web 2.0

International Meeting in Oświęcim (23-28.01.2011) and Weimar-Buchenwald (23-27.03.2011)

Maximilian-Kolbe-Werk, in cooperation with Club of Catholic Intelligentsia (KIK) and the Center for Prayer and Dialogue in Oswiecim, Pax Christi Germany invite young people to participate in the International Meeting, which will take place in January (in Oswiecim) and March (in Buchenwald) of 2011.

What?

After the huge success of the last year's seminar „65 years after Auschwitz” - meeting of young people and the witnesses of the history (former prisoners of concentration camps and ghettos), the organizers have decided to build on this good practices and organize further such meetings.

In the spirit of the work of the Association Maximilian-Kolbe-Werk, this meeting aims to:

• bring together young participants of various European countries, as well as the former prisoners of the concentration camps and ghettos;
• commemorate and pay the respect to the victims of Nazi regime;
• start an open dialogue;
• put the solid basis for the dialogue among the nations and the reconciliation.

Objectives:

• The key point of the seminar: direct contact between the wintesses of the history and the representatives of young generation. Thanks to this meeting, the young people would gain the authentic and very personal vision on the structure as well as the results of the Nazi crimes.
• The participants would discuss how the active commemoration shall look like in the future, as well as how the new media can contribute to this case.
• encouraging young people to act creatively and to actively commemorate the past events, in order not to forget the crimes of the Nazi dictatorship.
• During the 2 parts of the Seminar the concrete projects shall be created:
  • portraits of the witnesses of the history – prepared with the facilities of the various media techniques as well as the Web 2.0 applications.
  • creative way of presenting the testimonies given by the witnesses.

In order to achieve these objectives the participants would be divided for the following working groups: video, audio, text and creative work, Internet and web 2.0.

Languages of the seminar:

English, German, Polish, Russian.

Costs:

The Maximilian-Kolbe-Werk Association covers the costs of accommodation and food.

The organizers have applied for the grant to reimburse the travel costs of the Israeli participants; however the decision about the grant would be taken after the deadline of applications for participation in the seminar. In the case of not being granted, the participants would be responsible for covering the travel costs by themselves.

The estimated maximum cost (plane ticket and local transportation in Poland to the conference centre) is of around $850 per person, but once again this some might be partially covered by the organizers, should their grant application be approved.

In any case: participants would be responsible for covering the cost of the transport from their place of living to the Ben Gurion International Airport.

When and where?

The first part of the International Meeting would take place from 23^rd till 28^th of January 2011 in Oświęcim-Harmęże, Poland in the saint Maximilian Kolbe Center, which is situated in close distance from the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.

The second part of the seminar would take place from 23^rd till 27^th of March 2011 in the Memorial Site and Museum of Buchenwald in Weimar/Germany.

It is highly recommended that the participants would attend both parts of the Seminar, since they are tightly linked by the subject.

Who?

The seminar organizers invite the young adults (in the age group: 18-28 year old) from the countries of the Central and Eastern Europe, to actively participate as well as to intensively and creatively get involved in the given subject. The organizers expect the participants to actively participate in the working groups during the seminar, as well as to contribute afterwards, especially in the maintenance of the website and blog.

The group of expected participants is limited to the 20 people of the countries of Central-Eastern Europe and 2 participants from the State of Israel.

More...

The deadline for applications: 10^th January 2011.

Additional information are available at the Seminar's website:

www.maximilian-kolbe-werk.blogspot.com as well as directly from the seminar organizers.

Contact person:

Ms Julia Maria Koszewska

Klub Inteligencji Katolickiej

email: julia.koszewska(at)kik.waw.pl