In this article, volunteers from Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ASF) reflect on their year of voluntary service at the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial. We are delighted and grateful for the helpful and dedicated support provided to our work by Uliana and Gabriel.

Uliana

Since September 2024, I have been a volunteer with Action Reconciliation Service for Peace at the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial. During this time, I have been able to help out in various areas of the memorial – in the archive, in public relations and at events.

One highlight was the memorial's youth project, in which schoolchildren from Germany researched the biographies of former prisoners. This intensive engagement led me to visit concentration camp survivor Ksenia Olchowa in Moscow during my holiday.

My favourite projects were an exhibition about Henri Morgenstern, a relative of one of the children murdered at Bullenhuser Damm, and a small exhibition in the cafeteria portraying survivors of the Neuengamme concentration camp.

In January, I took part in the Bundestag's youth exchange programme. The visit to Auschwitz was deeply shocking – and at the same time empowering. The openness and commitment of the young people from many different countries gave me hope.

Accompanying the Ukrainian delegation to Hamburg on the 80th anniversary of the liberation was a particularly memorable experience. I was deeply impressed by the inner strength, warmth and kindness of these people.

I am deeply grateful to the entire team – for their support, for their trust and for the opportunity to gain at least a little insight into their complex and important work. This year has changed my thinking, my self-confidence and my view of the world.

Gabriel

My voluntary service at the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial has afforded me numerous once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Attending the 80th anniversary of liberation ceremony and guiding visitors through the memorial on tours, and introducing my friends and family to the history of such a significant place just to name a few. However, the experiences, I believe, that will have the greatest impact on me are the series of interviews I conducted.

Between March and July I was able to speak with more than ten people related to the Children of Bullenhuser Damm, a group of twenty Jewish children who were separated from their mothers in Auschwitz and brought to Neuengamme to have medical experiments preformed on them, only to all be murdered shortly before the end of the war. This year marked 80 years since their deaths and I decided to produce a documentary on their lives and persecution, speaking with their surviving family members to see how their memory still impacts their lives.

This project has pushed me in ways I could not have imagined. Reading every book and analyzing every document on a certain subject can provide plenty of knowledge, but cannot compare to speaking with historical witnesses face-to-face. This is exactly what I had the chance to experience when I spoke with Andra and Tatiana Bucci.

Seeing how these women, both in their mid-eighties, have dedicated such an essential part of their lives to being witnesses to the Nazi’s crimes is truly inspiring. On one hand, it was an honor knowing that they offered nearly two hours of their personal time to speak with me. On the other hand, it was extremely humbling seeing the strength these two had to relive their trauma on a constant basis — I struggle to imagine I would have the capacity to do the same if I was in their position. Regardless, the experience of speaking with was incredibly valuable and fulfilling, both personally and professionally, and I look forward to rewatching this interview over the years in awe that I had the chance to interact with such an important part of history.

I took very well to my various social media-related responsibilities — namely, producing videos for TikTok. That success continued through the second half of my voluntary service, with my largest success being a collaboration video with Deutsche Welle reaching more than 2 million views across their various social media accounts. However, this half of my service was also a lesson in dealing with negative criticism. In May, one of the videos I published received nearly overwhelmingly negative feedback from our viewers. I received plenty of harsh comments when I worked as a journalist, but were never framed as personal attacks on my character. I stand by my work — as do my colleagues — but this video was the end of my “honeymoon phase” with TikTok. I still find creating videos for Neuengamme both challenging and rewarding, but this lesson taught me not to tie my personal worth so much with the success and feedback my work receives.

Like many of my fellow volunteers from abroad, I will be staying in Germany after my voluntary service. Spending this year in Germany has convinced me that this country is where I want to build the next stage of my life and where I want to continue my growth as a person. This year working at Neuengamme has only secured my belief that advocacy and awareness of the dangers of right-wing extremism needs more attention than ever.