CLOSING CEREMONY OF WORCATION 2023 PROJECT AT STALAG VIII A MEMORIAL SITE

The Worcation project, organized by Meetingpoint Memory Messiaen e.V. in cooperation with the Memory Education Culture Foundation, ended last week with a ceremony on Friday, August 11, 2023.

The closing ceremony was opened by Meetingpoint manager Alexandra Grochowski, who welcomed guests and participants from Ukraine, Poland, Italy and Germany. Present at the ceremony were Saxon State Minister for Justice, Democracy, Europe and Equality, Katja Meier, Mayor of Görlitz for Culture, Youth, Schools, Sports, Social Affairs, Building and City Development, Benedikt M. Hummel, representative of the Görlitz District Starost, Martina Weber, Zgorzelec District Starost, Artur Bielinski, Zgorzelec District Deputy Starost, Miroslaw Fiedorowicz, Zgorzelec City Deputy Mayor, Radoslaw Baranowski, and Zgorzelec Commune Head, Piotr Machaj.

The welcome was followed by a memorial ceremony, during which wreaths and roses were laid at the POW monument at the Stalag VIII A memorial site.

Presentation of workshop results

Young Worcation participants worked for two weeks in three workshop groups: archaeological, theatrical and artistic, and the results of their activities could be admired by all invited guests.

Participants in the archaeological workshop, led by archaeologist Pavel Zawadzki, presented their findings directly at the archaeological site. The numerous artifacts that were excavated and cleaned gave the participants a glimpse of the difficult fate of the POWs who left the found objects at Stalag VIII A almost 80 years ago.

The theater workshop participants then presented the results of their work at the European Center for Remembrance, Education and Culture. The theatrical performance addressed this year’s theme “Propaganda and Disinformation” in an impressively emotional way.

Shortly afterwards, the results of the art workshops were presented, which were divided into two parts. During the first week of the meeting, young people worked on a comic book, a postcard and a T-shirt design – here, too, the connection to the theme was a strong theme of the individual stories. In the second part of the meeting, the young Europeans tackled film art. They worked on the film “Behind the Scenes,” the broadcast of which concluded the final event as a touching conclusion.

After the successful conclusion, Meetingpoint and the Foundation invited everyone to talk about the memorial together.

Meetingpoint Memory Messiaen e.V. and the Memory, Education, Culture Foundation would like to thank the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the city of Görlitz for funding the project.