12.09.- 25.09.2021

creating a site of education and remembrance

In this two-week work camp, youths and young adults from all over Europe worked together with experts to turn the Jewish cemetery in Zittau into an inclusive place of learning and remembrance. The project builds on a variety of preliminary work: In addition to many years of documentation and research work on the history of the cemetery and the people buried here, we rely on archaeological excavation results on the Jewish mourning hall and an interpretation concept with the virtual tour, which was also created by young volunteers.

The participants received an introduction to the history of the cemetery as well as the region and dealt with different burial traditions, especially Jewish-German ones. We visited other places of Jewish life in Görlitz (GER), Liberec (CZ) and Sieniawka (PL) and gained an insight into the cultural characteristics of the region. The participants had the opportunity to exchange with local people, to talk to them about their work and to ask questions themselves.

In the second week, we made the outlines of the mourning hall at the Jewish cemetery, which was demolished by the Nazis in November 1938, visible again. To do this, we worked with a landscape gardener who helped us to bring the destroyed building back to life with sandstone, earth and muscle power. A tactile model made of bronze shows the mourning hall in detail and can be viewed at the Jewish cemetery.