Younion 25 has a date!

The youth encounter will of course also take place in 2025. It is still too early to reveal details, but the date can already be noted!

Younion 2025 will take place between 19 July and 2 August 2025.

While the Younion team is planning and organising the next edition with exciting workshops and a unique multicultural atmosphere, you can read about the individual projects that were worked on in this year’s edition and why the added value for participants, in addition to the historical content, is so great.

Fot. Jakub Purej / MMM

Archaeology

Young people of different nationalities took part in a workshop on history at first hand. Over the course of two weeks, they worked intensively on the site of the former Stalag VIII A prisoner of war camp at an excavation site with the aim of finding evidence of history. And what have they found! Countless objects, each telling its own individual story. They are stories about individual fates, people, fathers, brothers and sons, who were crammed together under inhumane conditions in the de facto camp within a camp of the Stalag VIII A POW camp, and exploited as forced labourers. It is hard to believe that these people had to fight for peace in Europe just 80 years ago. It’s hard to believe that the topic of prisoners of war is once again of explosive relevance when you look at Ukraine or the Middle East. Have we not learnt anything from history?

Audio Workshop

Stalag VIII A has a close connection to music. We inevitably associate the name Olivier Messiaen and his piece ‘Quartet for the End of Time’ with the prisoner of war camp in Görlitz. However, Messiaen was not the only artist and musician in the camp. There were orchestras, bands and performances. The sound sphere of the camp was an inspiration to create, then as now. During Younion, the participants of the audio workshop explored the sound of the camp and the translation of their feelings into music. The audio workshop offered the participants an intensive exploration of the site and the well-known biographies of prisoners of war.

Art Workshop

Artistic approaches to teaching history will inevitably become necessary in the medium term in order to meet the needs of young people. Of course, time moves on imperceptibly and gently and the voices of the past continue to fall silent. The personal connection to the atrocities committed by the Germans during the Second World War is fading. Through the medium of film, young people have set out to shed light on the place that bears witness to these crimes and explore the difficult topic of remembrance and the culture of remembrance. In the further course of the encounter, the same group conceptualised and created an exhibition. This focussed on the multiculturalism of the prisoners of war in Stalag VIII A and the in many cases very tricky and incredibly long distances they had to travel to be exploited in the German war economy.

Younion is so much more than just history.

Of course, our participants come to Younion to learn about the history of Stalag VIII A and to practice active democracy. In addition to the content, which is partly taught and partly developed by the participants themselves, the encounter is also about self-organisation. This offers great added value for the participants, who are often away from their parents’ care for the first time. Self-organisation includes decision-making processes guided by the principle of deep democracy, preparing meals and finding leisure activities for the whole group, as well as planning excursions and evening entertainment.

Culture as a driving force behind the encounter

At Younion, people of different nationalities and even more cultures come together. The multicultural facet of the encounter is lived by the participants. During the two weeks together, the languages spoken by the participants become an integral part of the encounter. Language building blocks are practised through language animation using creative methods to promote communication at the level of language culture. Highlights are the cultural evenings, during which participants present their national traditions and customs as well as cultural peculiarities of their countries and regions.

Excursions

Younion takes place in the European city of Görlitz-Zgorzelec, but is not limited to the binational region around the Neisse. In addition to excursions that sensitise participants to topics in the form of excursions, there are also excursions that serve the purpose of recreation. For example, trips to Dresden or Wroclaw can be organised to offer participants a broader experience of encounters. Besides these trips outside the city, participants are also offered a wide range of leisure activities in and around Görlitz. Trips to the lake or to the cinema are always popular attractions.