Summer Camps

Literature, music, art, religion, politics and research: In all areas of life we encounter traces of Jewish culture and creativity in Europe. Almost eighty percent of the Jewish population worldwide has its roots in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

With our work in the summer projects we want to support the present, often small, Jewish communities that have been able to preserve their cultural legacy. For this reason the participants often work at Jewish cemeteries, clearing old paths, cleaning gravestones, removing weeds and helping to make the cemetery into a venerable place of remembrance. Jewish cemeteries continue to be vandalized still today. Our efforts against vandalism are an attempt to honour the people who have found a resting place in these graveyards. We also want to help those who are no longer able to care for the grave of their parents or grandparents, either because they were forced to leave the country or were murdered by the Nazis. Both young and older participants take a stance against anti-Semitism and racism.

Our work is not limited to commemoration. We also try to establish a lively exchange between Jewish and non-Jewish participants and project partners. Often groups are able to observe a Sabbath service and engage in intense talks about religion, current Judaism, everyday life, art and music and much more.

Who can participate?
Everyone can participate who is able to do the physical work in the one to two week projects and enjoys dealing with the culture, history and current situation in the respective summer camp country. The amount of work varies from summer camp to summer camp and is usually 5-6 hours.

How does the registration work?
Registration for the summer camps for people over 40 began in April 2023. Initially, all registrations are collected. Upon acceptance for a summer camp, the International Summer Camps Office sends out an email asking for payment of the participation fee. The team leaders of the summer camps will then contact the participants and inform them about the current status of the planning.

What does the participation cost?
For the participation, including meals, program and accommodation we ask for a contribution according to the information in the section costs. We will be happy to advise participants on booking their travel to and from the event, but we cannot assume the costs for this.

From 1945 to 1950, the Soviet occupying forces used the site as a special camp. Most of the buildings were demolished after 1950. In the newly-founded GDR, a memorial to the anti-fascist resistance was to be built. The “National GDR Memorial Buchenwald” was inaugurated in 1958. Since the 1990s, numerous changes have been made to the memorial site to commemorate more and other groups of victims. Two permanent exhibitions provide information about the history of the concentration camp and about the Soviet special camp. There is also an art exhibition.

In addition to practical and maintenance work on the hiking trail called “Buchenwald Railway Memorial Trail” (along the former railway tracks) and / or in the memorial on the former camp grounds, the participants of the summer camp will deal with the complex past of the site. On the hiking trail, they can engrave the names of deported children and young people on stones, or they can restore objects found during excavations in the restoration workshop. The proximity of the camp to the city of Weimar, which is important for German history and culture, will be discussed. The handling and representation of Buchenwald’s multi-layered story from 1945 until today will also be a topic. In addition to the place itself with its preserved buildings and remaining foundations, there are numerous opportunities for research through texts, photographs, drawings, found objects, archives, audio and film material and much more.

Traces and testimonies of the crimes can still be found here today. At the historical site, participants can approach the past, contribute their observations and experiences, and reflect on existing images of history together. In addition to dealing with the history of the site, participants will learn about new standards in archival work through work on the digital archive “Memorial Archives” and contribute to its further development.

The Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Memorial offers a platform for discussions on the topic of remembrance culture in a national and transnational context. More than 75 years after the end of National Socialism, one can explore the question of what this history has to do with us and what it means today. In doing so, everyone brings their own questions and approaches to the historical events, persecution, crimes and extermination. The memorial opens a space in which these topics are initiated and accompanied in dialogue with others and in a variety of ways.

The international encounter is supplemented by thematic excursions (e.g. to Nuremberg), as well as by an experience-oriented framework program. Joint sporting and cultural events and leisure activities in the region strengthen togetherness and offer a balance to the intensive exchange of content.

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The project focuses on workshops, lectures, city tours, museum visits and, above all, encounters with people. We will first set out for Berlin (03.08.-10.08.2023) and discover the city with all its diversity. Together we want to question gender-specific role concepts and diversity in German society and reflect on our own ideas.
After one week we will go to Jerusalem (10.08.-17.08.23). There we have the opportunity to deal with the different facets of Israeli society. In this place Judaism, Islam and Christianity meet, which influence the lives of people as individuals as well as society as a whole.

In addition to the current socio-political relevance, the topic is also historically significant, because queer people were also a point of attack during the Nazi era, for example through the persecution of homosexuals, also through the massive restriction of women’s rights Today, the gender images of that time have changed, and there is more tolerance and a pronounced diversity with regard to sexual identity and role concepts in both countries.
Nevertheless, in both states those people who do not conform to dominant role models face oppression and sometimes even violence. therefore we address this issue, and more importantly, the participants will become active in promoting how we can build a better future for all of us.

The exchange between young people from Israel and Germany is valuable and of particular importance. Due to the National Socialist past, the people of both countries are inevitably connected with each other. Therefore, during the summer camp we will deconstruct prejudices and promote cultural exchanges. Together we want to remember the past and set a sign for the future through the valuable encounters.

We are already looking forward to a solidary and considerate summer camp.

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ASF organizes this summer camp for the second time in close cooperation with the association “Drei Stufen” e.V. (Osnabrück). The work, which started in 2022, will now continue this year.

The workcamp aims to awaken interest and sensitize especially young people from different countries to the Jewish history of the Višķi shtetl as an example of the Jewish history of Latvia and Eastern Europe, in order to shape the future together. With the practical work by the participants at the site of the synagogue to uncover the foundation surface, to carry out measurements under the guidance of surveyors, to garden and clean the synagogue foundation an active sign shall be set for understanding and making visible the Jewish heritage in the small community, on the basis of which the monument will be created. The work in Višķi will be complemented by a thematic approach to the history of the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional place, as well as references to Jewish culture in Latvia in the past and present.

The Summer Camp in Zarasai aims to preserve the town’s Jewish heritage and prepare information and material for the inventory process of the local Jewish cemetery. Ultimately, it will help to understand about the situation of the cemetery as well as people who had been buried there. The inventory process will cover cleaning and tidying the cemetery from debris and excess of vegetation; digitisation and identifying coordinates of graves; identifying and copying legible inscriptions. Your volunteer work will be a vital part in making this almost lost information accessible to the public again.

The thematic work of this summer camp has to do with the Jewish history and culture in Lithuania, as well as the eventful, complex Lithuanian history in the 20th century. As in all summer camps, the participants are welcome to bring up additional themes that interest them.

In addition to leisure activities being available in the direct surroundings, participants will also have the opportunity to choose and visit capital of Lithuania Vilnius, Kaunas or Daugavpils in Latvia during the program.

All of this changed when Oświęcim was occupied in 1939 and the concentration camp of Auschwitz and the extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau were set up. During Auschwitz’s existence, almost 50 subcamps were created and in the vicinity of Oświęcim, in what was known as the Interessengebiet, there were eight agricultural subcamps and a complex of camps including the concentration camp KL Auschwitz III – Monowitz around the factory site of IG Farben.

During the international Summer camp, we want to explore this part of history and create an informative map in English in collaboration with local players. The map will provide background information on the complex of camps in Auschwitz and map the former subcamps, which are not part of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum today. Remains of the former camps and places of remembrance that one can visit are still to be found in these locations. We want to map former camps and places of remembrance systematically and document them, so that one can also seek out these places on their own.

The map will therefore contain information concerning the exact location of the former camps in today’s landscape, historical background information including accounts of survivors, the historical traces or remains that can still be found on site and places of remembrance (memorials, plaques, etc.).

Furthermore, hands-on work is also in the programme. We will be doing maintenance work on and looking after the graves in the Jewish cemetery of Oświęcim – removing weeds as well as undergrowth and cleaning tombstones. Working on the Jewish cemetery is an active contribution to remembrance. Our commitment is a way to remember the people who rest in these cemeteries and those who can no longer look after their relatives’ graves because they were displaced or murdered by the Nazis.

The place of work in the summer camp is the old, largest part of the Jewish cemetery, where people were buried until the end of World War II. It is devastated and partly exposed to wanton destruction, the northern half is completely overgrown. In some places in the cemetery area, a start was made to remove trees and branches from previous tree felling, to clear and clean grave fields and paths, and to remove regrown wild growth. The gravestones uncovered were – as far as possible – erected and repaired. The work on “Field 24”, where Jewish forced labourers and concentration camp prisoners were buried during World War II, is also to be cleared of the wood there and cleared of vegetation in order to make the grave sites visible. The work takes place under the expert guidance of the cemetery staff.

Wroclaw presents itself as a lively city with an unmistakable atmosphere, as a “city of encounters”. The accompanying program of the summer camp includes getting to know the past and present of the city, especially the search for traces of Jewish life, and encounters with people, with culture, religion and nature. The participants have the opportunity to discover a very special, historical and modern city.