Volkswagen Trainees help in preserving the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial site
Only a few German enterprises have worked as thoroughly as the Volkswagen Corporation to research and document their involvement in Nazi Germany. Corporate headquarters in Wolfsburg has had, since 1999, a memorial to the forced laborers, Jewish KZ prisoners and Soviet POWs and the atrocities committed on them in the armaments programs.
It is, however, not well known that the company is also committed to making sure that Oswiecim, the Polish name for Auschwitz, is not forgotten. As Prof. Martin Winterkorn, CEO of VW, said on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the International Youth Meeting Center Auschwitz: “Places like this teach us that we all carry responsibility for an open, free and democratic society. This concerns each and every one of us, and it especially concerns the younger generation. Because even in this day peace and freedom are still not completely the norm.” The VW corporation, present today in Poznan and Polkowice with a factory, has contributed heavily to this from its very inception. Five times a year VW trainees and young Polish people work for two weeks at the memorial site thus contributing to its preservation. They are accompanied by the International Auschwitz Committee (IAK). Over the past 23 years, more than 2,000 VW trainees have participated in these meetings. Some 156 younger managers as well as senior technicians (Meister) have visited the Auschwitz site within the framework of regular two-week meetings. The museum and the International Youth Meeting Center in Auschwitz cooperate to put on seminars about the history of the Third Reich and Auschwitz. These are attended jointly by young people from Volkswagen in Wolfsburg and by students from the Technical and Commercial School Complex in Bielsko-Biala. “On the one hand we are pleased that our trainees are permitted to help preserve the Auschwitz memorial as a site of historical memory. On the other hand, we see that the Meeting Center is a good example to show that memory can fi nd a place where young people can learn to understand that, more than anything, democracy needs democrats who are ready and willing to protect democracy” – said Bernd Osterloh, the head of the VW workers’ council.
Christoph Heubner, the chairman of the IAK, works as a pedagogical counselor with the trainees. He says, “They begin a journey to themselves: the very preparations for their sojourn make it clear to them that their situation at home makes the trip special – the reactions in their own families, where they are sometimes confronted by incredulous silence and/or stupid remarks of some of their friends. They notice that they are starting a quite unusual process, one which will be a major emotional challenge. This is no less true for our Polish partners.”