International guides met in Dachau for a workshop part of the Persecution through their Eyes project

Last week, the LRE Guide Network gathered in Dachau for an LRE Foundation guide workshop which aimed to explore how to present the topic of persecution, particularly to a young audience.

Persecution through their eyes project

The two-day guides workshop was one of the several activities that comprise “Persecution Through Their Eyes”, an EU-funded LRE Youth Programme involving a number of international partners: Camp Vught National Memorial (Netherlands),  Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation (Germany), the National Peace Park of Sant’Anna di Stazzema (Italy), and Grodzka Gate ‐ NN Theatre” Centre in Lublin (Poland).

Adopting a multi-perspective approach, the project focuses on a deeper understanding of the international dimension of persecution during the Second World War.

The guides workshop’s focus and programme

Genocide, persecution, and ethnic cleansing are sensitive topics that can elicit strong emotions and reactions. In order to deal with this, historical guides must have strong guiding skills. Even if there is no single ideal methodology, the goal of the LRE Foundation guides workshop was to provide guidelines and advice on how to tell the horrors of war, particularly to young people, while sharing best practices from several institutions with expertise in teaching and guiding on the topic of persecution.

On the first day, participants had the opportunity to listen to the experiences of persecution remembrance sites and memorials such as “Grodzka Gate ‐ NN Theatre” Centre, Sant’Anna di Stazzema, and Max Mannheimer Study Center. They also had the chance to put what they learned into practice by creating stories that could give faces to the many victims of the Nazi regime.

Instead, the emphasis on the second day was on storytelling techniques and practical methods for creating dynamic tensions in order to capture and hold the audience’s attention.

It was a great and interesting meeting.”, says Joël Stoppels, LRE Project Officer, “During the workshops, guides from the US, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy and France learned from each other. It was a very good way to share knowledge of how to tell stories of persecution, especially to a young audience through the workshops.”

The LRE Foundation welcomes a new prominent member: the Directorate General for Tourism in Luxembourg!

The LRE Foundation is proud to announce the recent addition of the Luxembourgish Directorate General for Tourism to its network of members across Europe. A key institution in a country with a painful yet proud WWII history and heritage. 

In May 1940, Nazi Germany occupied Luxembourg, and in 1942 they annexed the country. The occupation was long and harsh, leading to extensive resistance, with Luxembourgish soldiers joining Allied units until the country’s liberation in 1944. 

Together, the LRE Foundation and the Directorate General for Tourism will work to develop the Liberation Route network and hiking trails in Luxembourg, connecting it to the existing European-wide system that follows in the footsteps of the Allied Forces in their advance to liberate continental Europe from Nazi occupation. The goal is to highlight the country’s many remembrance sites and its rich history and heritage through an innovative and sustainable tourism product. The two institutions will also work together on a promotional campaign to raise awareness of the Luxembourgish past and WWII involvement, placing it in a wider European landscape.  

Rémi Praud, Managing Director of LRE Foundation, said of the new membership: “This collaboration will bring incredible value to the LRE Foundation and its network. We have already started our work together, and it is a pleasure to collaborate with such a prominent institution with clear values and goals regarding memory transmission and remembrance. This connection allows us to include even more stories linked to such an important part of WWII history. 

Lex Delles, Luxembourg’s Minister for Tourism, emphasizes in this context that “the conflicts of the 20th century have shaped Luxembourg’s contemporary identity. As a founding member of the European Union, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg defends the values of freedom, solidarity, tolerance, and pluralism. Memory transmission and remembrance are a duty. Therefore, remembrance tourism is one of the government’s priorities. In this context I warmly welcome the collaboration with the LRE Foundation.”