German perspective on the Slovenian-Council of Europe Workshop

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The Pestalozzi Workshop on the theme “From Crimes against Humanity in European History towards European Idea” was organized by the Council of Europe in Brdo, Slovenia on October 14th-17th 2009, in cooperation with the Slovenian History Teachers Association. Dr. Martin Liepach, member of VGD, the German History Teachers Association attended the Workshop and wrote an interesting report: “The Workshop brought together more than 50 teachers from different European countries. In the official welcome the Slovenian Minister of Education and Sport, Igor Lukašič, pointed out the moral stance of the issue. Also the keynote speaker, Professor Bučar (University of Ljubljana) stated: „To forget the victims means to forget history. “ Fabienne Regard from the Council of Europe was setting one important focus of the programme: Teaching about the holocaust also means prevention of crimes against humanity. Also the National Slovenian History Teacher Association was involved in the conference and encouraged more than 20 colleagues to take part in the conference. Not only the lecture on „Crimes against humanity in Europe at the end of the Second World War and after“ gave an interesting survey of the topic but also the talks with colleagues from Slovenia were very instructive and gave all participants the possibility to enrich their knowledge and make fruitful exchanges of experience. The workshop compromised different best practice case studies as well excursion to historical sites like Poljubelj, which was an exterior camp of the concentration camp Mauthausen.