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A cyclical educational project called “Practical commemoration” carried out at the State Museum at Majdanek by students from the Gesamtschule Waltrop was awarded a Dr. Selig Auerbach prize. It has been awarded schools by the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation in Recklinghausen (North Rhine-Westphalia) since 2006. The prize is granted for the best project in making the Holocaust history more accessible, commemorating the Nazi victims, Jewish culture and religion, and Christian-Jewish relations. It will be officially awarded in March in the town hall of Recklinghausen.

Visits of the students from Waltrop to the Majdanek Museum take form of a specialist training and combine emotional perception of an authentic historical site with intellectual understanding of the past. Students work on chosen topics concerning various aspects of the history of Nazism, including German concentration camps, such as KL Lublin. They also have a chance to meet people who survived the Majdanek camp. This year’s meeting with Stanisława Kruszewska, a former Majdanek prisoner, provided German students with many unforgettable experiences and impressions. Individual seminar works and presentations of acquired knowledge and experiences by the students to their peers and wider audiences in a form of a temporary exhibition are direct results of the training.