The International Auschwitz Committee and Volkswagen AG have started working together again. They are holding a preparatory seminar in Hanover as the conservation project with trainees at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial gets underway again following the interruption caused by the Covid pandemic.

This means that in 2023 five groups, each with 15 trainees from all of the various company locations in Germany will be staying for 12 days in Oswiecim/Auschwitz where they will be involved in maintenance and restauration work at the former concentration and extermination camp complex. Alongside the colleagues from the Memorial, they will be helping to maintain the buildings and conserving items that remain as evidence of the crimes committed there, items that once belonged to the Jewish people who were murdered at the camp. During their project work, three of the five groups will be meeting up with colleagues from VW branches in Poland or with students from partner colleges. During their almost two-week visit the groups will be accompanied and cared for by the International Auschwitz Committee. They will be accommodated in the International Youth Meeting Center in Oswiecim/Auschwitz. Also in 2023, in addition to the young trainees, four groups of managers and master craftsmen and women from the company will be taking part in seminars and remembrance projects at the Auschwitz Memorial.

Speaking about this year’s project work at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee said: “The helping hands of the trainees are now urgently needed at the Auschwitz Memorial, as the volume of essential maintenance and restoration work at the 190-hectare grounds of the former concentration and extermination camp is constantly growing. The young people from Volkswagen volunteer to take part in this project, and there are always far more applications than places available. This actually confirms the results of a recent survey which show that young people’s interest in coming to terms with the history of National Socialism and a visit to an appropriate memorial has massively increased. The survivors of Auschwitz are very grateful to the young people from Volkswagen for their interest, their empathy and their help. Especially now, when hatred and violence towards Jewish people are constantly on the rise, not only in Germany, and anti-Semitism is becoming more openly violent, the young people’s commitment is a clear signal that extends far beyond the borders of Germany.”