Sound in the Silence is an interdisciplinary remembrance project aimed at encouraging high school students from around Europe to actively reflect on the difficult aspects of the 20th century history with the use of artistic means.

Each edition takes place in a carefully selected location. This year’s participants – 3 groups, 7 pupils and 1 teacher each – will travel to “Denkort Bunker Valentin” memorial in Bremen, Germany where they will explore the history of the former construction site of the Nazi Valentin submarine factory, with a special focus given to the topic of unfree labor.

Drawing on their reflections and emotional reactions to what they will come to learn there, young students will work together with professional artists to create a performance based on acting, dance, music and creative writing.

While the pupils learn about the site's past and work on the final performance, their teachers will take part in workshops on interdisciplinary ways of teaching history so as to exchange experiences with peers from different countries.

During the Second World War, about 13,5 million men, women and youth, including civilians, prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates, became slave workers for the German Nazis. The exploitation of unfree workforce was common and took place in many different industries, from farming and administration to construction, manufacturing and arms production.

One of the locations to which forced labourers were assigned was bunker “Valentin” – massive construction site of a submarine pit in Bremen, Germany. Between 1943 and 1945, about 10.000 people from all across Europe were coerced to work there, turning the bunkered submarine shipyard into a horrific, complex microcosm within a larger Nazi system of division and unfree labour.

During this year’s edition of the Sound in the Silence project, the participants will focus on the individual experiences of men and few women who were deprived of their freedom and forced to work against their will at bunker’s construction site. A special attention will be given to the various social and psychological coping strategies which the people in question developed, often against all odds. Supporting others and trying to preserve interpersonal relations; keeping a diary; getting bread from civilian workers; creating art – these are some of the ways in which forced workers tried to counteract exhaustion, malnourishment and oppression. Among the stories which will be explored during the educational workshops, one will find these of the Italian soldier Elio Materassi; young Polish civilian Stanisław Masny, as well as concentration camp inmates – Spyros Pasaloglou from Greece and the Frenchman Maurice Cordonnier. Meanwhile, experiences of Klaas Touber, Dutch forced labourer, and Andre Migdal, a Jewish concentration camp inmate from France will show that the fight for dignity for former unfree workers continued also after the Second World War.

Scientific school of Split (Prirodoslovna škola Split)

Prirodoslovna škola Split is a state science high school with about 560 students and 50 teachers. The students are from 14 to 19 years old and they come from the whole region. The curriculum of the school is based on European standards and values, including an emphasis on social studies and volunteer work. The school employees aim to engage the pupils in various leisure activities and cultivate a close relationship with the local community. The students are involved in different activities, such as assisting the disabled and elderly people, cleaning streets and public parks, helping animals, participating in local feminist associations etc. The school promotes global citizenship by teaching about different European nations and their cultures; the pupils take English and Latin classes and can also choose to learn Italian or French.

International American School of Warsaw

The International American School of Warsaw opened 1989 as the first international school in Poland. While we are a relatively small school with approximately 180 students, we have an incredibly diverse student base with over 40 nationalities represented. We have a strong sense of community spirit and inclusion, which has made our school such an enjoyable place for students to learn.
School philosophy is as simple as it is challenging: work together, grow together. We see ourselves as a partner for our students and their families, and learn from each other in an atmosphere of mutual respect and inspiration. We strive to motivate one another for the goals of individual and collective development. The school’s educational aims are reflected upon regularly and based upon shared values of understanding, critical thought, creativity, tolerance, communication, responsibility and integrity.

Carl von Ossietzky Schulzentrum Gymnasiale Oberstufe

The school is located in Bremen, Germany.