German-Polish youth programs promote intercultural exchange

Various German-Polish youth exchange programs have been organized to promote intercultural understanding and historical awareness among young people.

In the Rhein-Kreis Neuss region, 30 participants aged 12 to 18 engaged in an eleven-day program with partners from Mikołów, Poland. The initiative focused on processing the history of the Holocaust and its consequences. Participants utilized modern technology, such as virtual reality to explore the Auschwitz concentration camp and the Anne Frank House, and visited the NS Documentation Center in Cologne and the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen.

Separately, the Gera Youth Welfare Office organized a week-long program in Duszniki-Zdrój, Lower Silesia, for eleven teenagers. In collaboration with the Union of Youth of the German Minority in the Republic of Poland (BJDM), the program included hiking and cultural courses designed to foster tolerance and cross-border connections. This project was supported by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Association of German Socio-Cultural Societies in Poland.