One year later than first planned, we were able to arrange C1 at The Oslo Region European Office in Brussels.

Representatives from all 6 schools in the partnership attended. In addition Sjur Rynningen Bie-Lorentzen and Josefine Karen Blixencrone (both from The Oslo Region European Office) attended most of the events. There was a three day programme with the following themes, content and methods:

Day 1: Strengthen the partnership and get to know our hosts at the Oslo Region European Office (OREO) and their work towards the EU. We visited the EU Parliament's House of European History.
Day 2: Human rights work in and towards the European Union. We attended a lecture by Senior Human Rights Officer, Alexander Sjödin, from Human Rights House Foundation. Mysen shared a method of teaching human rights in the classrom through a walkthrough of "The Democracy Cake" game from The Rafto Foundation. The schools will later play the same game with their students during the project period.
Day 3: Mysen shared their teaching methods regarding the local history task from the project application. Lastly, we discussed and planned project management, implementation of the coming mobilities and evaluated the meeting. Visit from The Norwegian National Agency (hkdir).

The meeting had the following results:
- The partnership is strenghtened, and all the partners have now met in real life and we have become good friends.
- We learned a lot about human rights work by different NGOs in and towards the EU as well as methodology on teaching history and human rights in the classroom.
- The partners are "back on track" and motivated to continue the project locally and through mobilities
- Dissemmination aims were also reached through the use of our social media accounts. In addition The Oslo region Eurpean Office shared pictures and videos from the event. Even the Norwegian national agency (hkdir) visited our event to make a news article on their webpage.

The participants from the schools will share the results of this meeting with their colleagues and students in order to integrate the results with the normal school activities. In addition it is obvious that the above mentioned teaching methods will be used in the classroom the coming months. Results from last year's project work was used during the meeting, for example a digital product from Norway about local history that was made by students.

From 18th to 23rd September participants from Basque Country, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Romania and Poland took part in C3 meeting in Sędziszów Małopolski, Poland.

Sunday 18th was the day when delegations arrived.

On Monday, next day in the morning all participants came to Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. ks.Piotra Skargi for a welcome meeting with school authorities where they could learn basic information about the school, i.e. its history, present activities and among others engagement in help provided to Ukrainian students. Later the whole group went to the mayor's office where they met town officials who talked about how local community helps Ukraine. Representatives of project partners also outlined their schools' involvement in refugee aid. Monday afternoon was spent in the local community centre where project students learnt how to dance Polish traditional dances and some modern ones.

On Tuesday morning all participants gathered at the school to watch and listen to presentations given by all delegations. Students presented their countries, schools and regions. The next point of the programme was a visit to the Capuchin Monastery , a meeting with friendly monks who told students how their ancestor brothers organised help for local people during dark days of World War II and hosting Ukrainian families at their monastery now. Then the whole group went to Rzeszów, a city which is a huge logistics hub of civil and military help for Ukraine.

On Wednesday morning the project group received a warm welcome at the Sędziszów Małopolski county integration centre where together with county authorities there was a panel meeting during which delegates attempted to address the issue of recent and present wars: what to do to avoid them in the future, how to better integrate people of Europe. In the afternoon Erasmus Remember team headed for Cyziowka, a charmful recreation centre in the middle of the forest to socialize, dance, play games, have fun.

Thursday morning was the time of a visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration camp during World War II - a very touching experience that most of project students are likely to remember for the rest of tgheir lives. In the afternoon Remember project delegation went to Kraków for city sightseeing tour, in particular Kazimierz, the Jewish district.

Friday was a departure day, but some of the groups still had enough time to walk around historical centre of Kraków.

The meeting im Poland was for the participants from 6 countries the occasion to get to know each other, to learn about their countries and schools. It also gave the participants the opportunity to learn more about the local historic events and about Polish and European history of the 20th century.

The participants discussed about the current war in Ukraine and shared their knowledge of involvement in help activities for war refugees in Poland and other European countries. During the visit to the Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau the participants were confronted with the tragic history of Holocaust and the Second War.

The main benefit of the meeting is students' growing interest in current situation in Europe, in the world, reflexion about the past and students' increasing interest in current politics. Getting in contact with young people from other countries, learning from each other and increasing motivation to learn foreign languages are other important benefits. The various integrating activities of the meeting considerably enriched the program, both students and teachers developed their collaborative spirit, their ability to analyse and interpret social facts and phenomena, to disseminate the results of their team work, to have a more profound understanding of the concept of participatory democracy. An important aspect of the program was the possibility of living in host families, the possibility of understanding its diversity, creating emotional bonds with people from a different cultural area, strengthening one's sense of respect for other values, active participation in lessons at a Polish school strengthened the flexibility of students and the ability to adapt to new conditions.

Hallo, ich bin Emily aus der KS2 und war letztes Jahr mit Erasmus+ vom 18. September bis 23. September 2023 in Polen. Wir sind mit dem Flugzeug geflogen und kamen nachmittags am Flughafen in Krakau an. Dort haben wir eine kleine Sightseeing-Tour gemacht und uns den Krakauer Markt angeschaut. Anschließend sind wir mit dem Bus zu unserer Zielstadt, Sędziszów Małopolski, am Abend angekommen. Unsere Gastfamilien haben uns herzlich in Empfang genommen. Ich selbst war in einer Familie mit zwei Töchtern. Die ältere der Beiden ging nicht mehr zur Schule und die Jüngere war ein Jahr jünger als ich und war eine Klasse unter den anderen Teilnehmenden der polnischen Schule. Mit beiden konnte ich mich gut auf Englisch unterhalten, die Mutter konnte allerdings nur Polnisch und Russisch. Die ganze Familie war sehr herzlich und nett und ich habe mich sehr wohl gefühlt.

Oft haben wir den Tag in der Schule mit zwei Schulstunden in der Klasse des jeweiligen Austauschschülers begonnen. Und auch wenn man aufgrund der Sprache nicht viel verstehen konnte, war es trotzdem sehr interessant den Schulalltag mitzuerleben. Danach hatten wir Veranstaltungen mit den Austauschschülern aus den anderen Ländern. Jedes Land: Belgien, Norwegen, Rumänien, Polen und wir aus Deutschland durfte eine kleine Präsentation halten: über unser Land, die Schule und warum wir uns entscheiden haben an diesem Projekt teilzunehmen. Gleich am ersten Tag durften wir außerdem den Bürgermeister kennenlernen. Dieser hat uns viel über die Geschichte der Stadt erzählt. Dabei hat er besonders die Unterstützung Polens durch vielzählige Hilfspakete für die Ukraine in dem Russland-Ukraine-Krieg erwähnt.

An einem anderen Tag haben wir einen Ausflug in die nächstgrößere Stadt gemacht: Rzeszów. Wir haben die Sehenswürdigkeiten angeschaut und wir wurden über die Geschichte der Stadt aufgeklärt. Danach hatten wir Freizeit und ich, mit einer keinen Gruppe, hauptsächlich deutsche Austauschschüler und unsere polnischen Partner, waren in einem Indoor Rollerskatepark.

Am dritten Tag haben wir erneut einen Ausflug gemacht und waren in einem großen Restaurant, welches von außen wie eine Holzhütte aussah, das polnische Spezialitäten vom Grill angeboten hat. Bei dem Restaurant gab es außerdem Gokarts mit denen wir dann auf dem ganzen Anwesen herumfahren konnten.

Insgesamt habe ich viele polnische Gerichte kennengelernt, da die Mutter meiner Gastfamilie sich immer sehr viel Mühe gemacht hat, mir leckeres Essen zu kochen. An diesem Abend musste ich mich auch schon von meiner Gastfamilie verabschieden, denn am nächsten Morgen ging es mit dem Bus früh los. Wir sind zu dem Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum gefahren. Ich habe dadurch unvergessliche Eindrücke bekommen und noch viel über unsere Geschichte lernen können. Anschließend haben wir noch eine Nacht in einem Hotel in Krakau verbracht und sind am nächsten Tag wieder zurückgeflogen. Insgesamt war es eine wirklich sehr ereignisreiche und interessante Erfahrung. Ich habe sehr viel über Polen, die Kultur und Geschichte lernen können. Ich bin sehr dankbar für alle Erfahrungen, die ich gemacht habe und die dabei entstandenen Erinnerungen. Ich würde es jederzeit wiedermachen und kann jeden nur dazu motivieren, auch an Erasmus+ teilzunehmen.

The mobility to Norway was implemented from the 24th to the 27th of October 2022, with travelling days on the 23rd and the 28th. Students and teachers from all the partner schools attended. The students stayed in host families with Norwegian students.

On Monday the theme was to break the ice and to get to know each other better. We started in the school atrium with a welcome ceremony with student performances, a speech from the principal, Lasse Thorvaldsen, and ice breaking activities. All students and teachers attended a guided tour of the school as well as the town of Mysen. The last activity of the day was presentations by the students of the visiting schools in the school auditorium. This was carried out in English.

On Tuesday the students attended normal classes before, a lesson about hate speech in today's society in the school library. Through discussions, reflections and debate, the students were active and engaged. The students also made questions to ask Mona Levin, who told her story on Thursday. Later this day the foreign students had a lesson to learn Norwegian language. They focused on pronounciation, vocabulary and sentence structure, and they played roles to practice, for example how to order food in a store. After this lesson their curiosity was triggered, and throughout the week we could here language discussions among the students.

Oslo was visited on Wednesday, and human rights was on the agenda. By bus the students went to the Nobel Peace Prize Center in Oslo. Here they had a guided tour, and they were engaged in different interactive excercises in the exhibition. This knowledge was connected to the activity on Thursday. Learning about human rights at the Nobel Center, founded an important layer of knowledge. This made it easier to understand the human rights violations that happened in Norway during The Second World War. Later this day, the students went on a photo safari to strengthen relationships between the students and to see the city. In the evening pizza was served in the school atrium, and the students also played games like table tennis.

The main attraction of Thursday was a lesson from Holocaust witness Mona Levin. In the school auditorium all participating students in addition to the student council, interested teachers and other classes of the school, attended. The Holocaust Center in Oslo was unable to come, so a teacher from Mysen held a presentation about The Norwegian Holocaust to prepare the students for Mona Levins story. Mona told her interesting and heartbreaking story before the students asked their questions. This was a really learningful experience, and all the students followed Mona with a strong interest. Afterwards the whole group of students and teachers got on the bus to walk the refugee trek across the Swedish border in Marker to be able to experience how it was for Mona Levin and other refugees during the war years.

All in all, the above mentioned activities contributed to reaching goals.

From 5th to 10th February 2023 participants from Basque Country, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Poland and Poland took part in C6 meeting in Medgidia, Constanta county, Romania.

The meeting offered to all participants, students and teachers as well, the opportunity to get to know what communism in Romania was like and what the consequences of it are today, after 50 years of communism.

Sunday 5th was the day when all delegations arrived.

On Monday, all delegations met at the Cultural Center "IN Roman". After the festive opening, which included a message from the director of Nicolae Balcescu Theoretical High School in Medgidia and ice-breaking activities, all delegations presented information about their country, city, and school of origin. After lunch, the Romanian team provided extensive information about communism in Romania, totalitarianism and democracy, and the importance of freedom.

The second day of the project was dedicated to the main subject of communism in Romania. A workshop was organized in partnership with the Faculty of History and Political Science at Ovidius University in Constanta. Mr. Lecturer Gabriel Stelian Manea gave a lecture followed by intense debates on the consequences of communism at the European level.

On the third day of the project, an educational trip was made to the Adamclisi museum complex, where the monument, ancient citadel, and history museum were visited. The day ended with a Romanian-themed party where Romanian traditions, culinary preparations, music, and dance were presented.

On the last day of the project, Fort 13 in Jilava and the Palace of the Parliament, two historic landmarks, were visited, and the European students, along with their Romanian colleagues, became aware that history is a lesson that must be known to avoid repeating it!

On this occasion, Romanian hospitality, the creativity and imagination of Romanian students, and the total involvement of the entire school in project activities proved to create an event that European guests will remember as exceptional.

Throughout the meeting, European students were hosted by families in Medgidia. They observed during these days that the differences between European teenagers are rather prejudices and that, although from different areas of Europe, they share the same ideals, values, and aspirations.

The students have understood in these days that communism, which claimed to be a new civilization, superior to the capitalist one it vehemently denied, forced hundreds of millions of people to live in a closed, repressive, and humiliating world. Theoretically, communism claimed to embody "absolute humanism," a society in which class distinctions disappeared and people could live in complete freedom.

Communism was a utopian concept rooted in the dream of suppressing, at any cost, private property and building a universe of total equality. The Leninist dictate over reality sought to transform the individual into a mere cog in the immense machinery of the one-party despotism. This does not mean that this strategy was fully successful. On the contrary, people resisted in various ways, there were different degrees of opposition, but also various degrees of complicity.

At the same time, the students have come to the conclusion that democracy, with all its imperfections, is always preferable, and it must be defended in any circumstance, through civic spirit, involvement, social responsibility, competence, and professionalism.

The common thread in this week’s programme is the migration history in Belgium.

In preparation of this week’s activities our pupils conducted a survey on the migration background of their fellow pupils and teachers at our school, they got a lecture about the migration history in Belgium in general and in our mining region (Limburg) in particular, they listened to a first generation migrant’s testimony and subsequently they looked up more information on the topic themselves. They shared the historical consciousness they thus acquired with the pupils of the partner schools in a presentation. This learning material was sent to the partner school prior to the mobility so our guests had some knowledge of the topic when coming to Belgium.

The main activities during the mobility continued to build on this topic. First of all there was a panel discussion during which Tom Naegels, author of Nieuw België: Een migratiegeschiedenis 1944-1978 discussed his book’s topic and then 7 panelists, all first/second/third generation migrants (and of whom 3 former pupils) shared their experiences and opinions with the audience. The pupils, teachers and parents were then invited to ask questions or share their opinions with the others; it turned out to be a meaningful and useful conversation.

In Brussels the pupils were guided through Molenbeek, one of the most multi-cultural parts of the capital city, and in Genk they watched Marina, a movie about the life of an Italian immigrant who became world famous.

In Beringen the pupils visited the old mine sites since the mining industry was one of the key factors in our migration history.

At school our guest studied their own migration history, compared it to ours and turned this into a presentation that was shown to pupils, teachers and parents. In addition, they also presented their own country (geography, language, culture, history …) to the Belgian pupils of the fifth form.

All these activities perfectly illustrated the previously acquired knowledge.

Apart from these topic-related activities we organized teambuilding activities and excursions so as to introduce our guests to Belgium and the Belgian way of life.

The German school was unable to join because of Corona restrictions in Germany at the time of the LTT.

The week in the Basque Country was focused on the study of the violation of human rights during the Spanish Civil War. To do this, we analyzed the consequences in Tolosa, Euskal Herria and Europe.

For all these reasons, the first day we began with a presentation at the town hall where the city councillor explained the importance of Tolosa for Gipuzkoa to us and the attendees were able to ask him questions about the Basque reality. After that, we carried out activities related to Basque culture such as the "herri kirolak" and some games so that the students got to know each other. Finally, some students from the school gave us a concert with famous songs in the Basque Country.

On Tuesday we began to analyze the violation of human rights during the Civil War and the franquist regime. In order to do so, the students of Laskorain school organized a market in which each stall explained a type of violation and how it affected the society. Such as LGTBIQ+, concentration camps, jails, women’s issues, stolen babies… After that, each delegation prepared a research and a presentation about how their country participated in the Spanish Civil War. In the afternoon, one of the researchers of Galtzaundi Association presented his paper about how franquism repressed Basque language in Tolosa during the dictatorship. It was a regarding session taking into account the participation and the involvement of the assistants.

On Wednesday we went to San Sebastian where we were separated into two groups and received a guided tour of the entire city about the Civil War and its consequences and how it affected architecture among other things. Meanwhile, the other group visited the San Telmo museum where we learned about the history of the Basque Country.

On Thursday, we visited Guernica where we first went to the Peace Museum where they talked about the famous bombing and how it was experienced in the town and its surroundings. Afterwards, we visited the city by parts to see up close the consequences of the war in it.

Finally, on Friday all the delegations returned home.

The C4 activities in Germany were very successful. First of all, our partners were welcomed on 25th Sunday and brought to their hotel and the host families respectively. Our first meeting on Monday, 26th September, encompassed after a first ice-breaking event an open discussion on integration and the current crises in Europe with the lord mayor of Schwäbisch Gmünd, who has formerly been the representative our federal state in Brussels. The idea was to exchange strategies on how to cope with that issue. Each delegation was invited and the discussion was very fruitful as it affected all schools in one way or the other. One student of the Parler-Gymnasium finally told us about her way to Germany, including crossing the Mediterranean Sea in a little boat. In the evening, a Barock dancing session brought us all together.

On the second day of the mobility, the visiting of the archive and a city tour with the historian Prof. Dr. Müller were on the program. We split the students up into two groups. They got insights of the work as an archivist and how to deal with sources. Prof. Müller showed the students in accordance to the project’s objectives places where people were tortured. In the afternoon, translated sources from the archive were analyzed in international groups and presented in the plenum. This workshop was also very interesting.

In the evening, there was an event including a dinner where the schools introduced themselves. In addition, all host families were invited and our orchestra performed.

On Wednesday, the delegations had a tour to Grafeneck. There, thousands of people were killed in a program whose intention was to eliminate weak and sick people. The students had a guided tour and workshops provided by experts as well. They stayed there for almost 4 ½ hours and learned quite a lot about “Euthanasia”. It is an important part of history as it also proves how inhumane ordinary Germans were treated by the Nazi. Although it does not make a difference, it clearly shows that those people had no limits.

On Thursday we had our evaluation of the project. For us, it was very important that everybody can utter his or her feelings. That’s part of our democratic system and necessary to create a sense for feeling important. Reflections are also necessary for us in order to improve our next plannings and steps. The students appreciated the workshops and mobilities, but lots of them wanted more soft power activities such as dancing.

Unfortunately, the Norwegian and Romanian team couldn’t participate. We were very sad as we felt that there was something incomplete. It was and is a pity.

All activities are important to understand violence better and how to avoid it. The material can be used to exemplify what happens if people let organizations such as the Nazi-party come to power. Besides, we felt the necessity of such meetings to create a common feeling of European social cohesion.

The meeting in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany, offered all participants the opportunity to exchange and get to know various ways of how to integrate migrants into society. An open discussion on that topic broadened their horizon and they finally realized that mutual understanding and respect are the basis of successful integration. However, it is of importance that authorities support this process in order to get enough public support.

In the archive, students learnt how the storing of knowledge helps us to reconstruct the past, e.g., diploma from the Middle Ages. It moreover exposes new insights into local history. Thus, the workshop in the afternoon enabled the students to reconstruct the miserable situation of the Jews in Schwäbisch Gmünd before World War II. The city also encompassed sites where people were treated badly. Consequently, the city’s history became “visible” in many ways.

The visit to Grafeneck also exposed the cruelty of the Nazi regime. Students learnt that the Nazis did not only focus on other ethnicities but on Germans as well. Disabled and old people were killed in that place. They called it “euthanasia” and was later attacked by the Catholic church. Indeed, it became clear that the Nazis also had to cope with public resistance. However, in case of the Jews or Roma and Sinti the public remained passive. They explore more about the people who died there in a workshop.

All in all, the students learnt during that week much about our human rights history (then and now) and that dealing with Nazi-Germany is an integrated part of our identity. Besides, students enjoyed many other activities (dancing, bowling, mini-golfing or climbing) to get to know each other better.

The activity started in Cracow, where delegations from six project partner schools were supposed to meet. They took part in the workshops in Nowa Huta, Kraków district of 200,000 inhabitants built as the ideal socialist-realist city, where they had a Kraków Communism Tour - a journey to the communist past in Poland.

The next point of the programme was the meeting in Sędziszów Małopolski, where the Polish partner school is located. The guests were received in the Town Hall; the programme included the welcome speech by the town mayor Bogusław Kmieć, introduction of delegations, presentation on Poland’s Solidarity Movement given by Tomasz Przywara a history teacher, some songs performed by the school artists – students from a musical “New York, New York” staged in March this year, a short project summary by Lars Johansson the main project coordinator, a brief account of major events during mobilities to their own countries given by each delegation and project’s achievements, a visit to important historical places in the town of Sędziszów Małopolski (the Jewish cemetery, where in 1944 during liquidation of the local ghetto 400 Jews were killed by the Nazis, and Capuchin Monastery, which is the local spiritual centre, favorite by locals).

The next step was a visit to Rzeszów Airport - main world’s transport hub for transit of people and goods to fighting Ukraine, president Zelensky granted Rzeszów the status of “rescuer city” for its support in helping Ukrainians fleeing from the war; the guided tour of the area; transfer to Rzeszów city centre and a walk around the town to see the sights and learn about its development from a tiny provincial place before WW 2 to aviation industry and university centre now; guided tour of “Rzeszów Cellars” Underground Tourist Route to present some information about Rzeszów city and the region with their history and culture.

For the visit in the Polish school the Norwegian history teachers prepared the lesson about the Scandinavian history, it took place on the last day of the meeting, students involved in the Erasmus+ project took part in the lesson and found it very interesting and enjoyable.

To be continued . . .