Youth Initiative Step 21 Presents 'White Spots' Newspaper To German President Köhler

"In Lüneburg, Nazi doctors murdered children," "Dispossession in Oberhausen: The Department Store Tietz," "Broken Bones and Malnutrition. The Rollwald Camp in Nieder-Roden" – headlines like these would have been unthinkable during the Nazi era since they document the atrocities of that regime. But these headlines represent just a few of the historic events that 80 teenagers from Germany and Poland tracked down during intensive research in their home regions. The search was initiated by the project "White Spots" of the youth initiative Step 21, which Bertelsmann sponsors. Now, the results of the memorial project can be read in the "White Spots Newspaper." The paper was edited by 15 youthful research teams and presented to German President Horst Köhler during a ceremony at Bertelsmann's Berlin Representative Offices Unter den Linden 1 on Monday, a few days before the memorial day for the victims of National Socialism. "Our project enables an awareness of history with a balance between memorializing and looking forward into the future. We cannot deny the responsibility placed upon us by German history. You need to be able to look into your rearview mirror in order to change lanes," comments the editorial in the "White Spots" newspaper. With its reports, reportages, and interviews with witnesses about subjects like forced labor, Pogrom Night, euthanasia, underground press, resistance groups, and prisoner camps it fills in the gaps in the reporting in the press controlled by the National Socialists. German President Horst Köhler was the first reader of the memorial paper. As the patron of the nonprofit youth initiative Step 21 he had come to the ceremony together with his wife, Eva Luise. "I feel honored to receive the first copy of the newspaper. It includes an incredible amount of information, and I am very happy that it will not be lost," Köhler said. Following in the footsteps of his predecessors, Roman Herzog and Johannes Rau, he was highly pleased to become to patron of the youth initiative. It makes a convincing contribution to the "search for forms of commemoration that point towards the future." In the initiative, young people are dealing with history with "enormous seriousness and commitment," he added. Since 1998, Step 21 has initiated educational offers and projects with more than 200,000 young people in more than 6,000 schools in order to promote democratic values such as tolerance, responsibility, and civil courage. In her welcome speech, the initiator of Step 21, Sonja Lahnstein, whose own family was persecuted under the Nazi regime, said: "We Germans have special reason to always deal with our history. And who could be of better help than young people who want to know, who ask questions, and who are willing to become engaged and learn at a young age just how indispensable it is to stand up for our values."  The 15 teams from 14 cities researched newspaper archives from Ulm to Dresden to Krakow. They viewed old documents and history books, and visited cemeteries and memorials. They quickly realized how much the press at the time was a mouthpiece of Nazi propaganda, and how many events were reported in a distorted and shrouded manner. "From now on, I will probably read today's press with a more critical eye. You can't check on each news item, but you should compare stories and remain attentive," Ann-Christin Heinig of Team Dresden gave her personal summary of her experience dealing with local media during the Third Reich. According to research by the team from Lubin, the "Steinauer Kreis und Stadtblatt" interpreted the dislocation of Polish citizens into forced labor camps as the "mobilization of non-German labor." And the Team Lüneburg could not find a single line in the local press of the time about the euthanasia crimes committed in what is today's municipal hospital. Only through an interview with the sister of one of the victims did the team of six from the local high school succeeded in shedding light on a dark piece of history. And other groups were also able to find out a lot through personal stories of survivors or relatives.  For most of the participants, these conversations with witnesses are among the most valuable experiences they had during the project. "We were able to get into the details, got to know the faces behind the stories, and were thus even more touched by the fate of individuals. We hope that many more teenagers will try to contact witnesses, because this is the last opportunity to do so," stated the team from Lubin, who spoke with Katarzyna Jach, a former Polish forced laborer.  But despite all the horrible memories that came to light during the interviews, none of the teams sensed any hatred or mistrust by the victims towards Germans. Rather, there was a great need for dialogue on both sides, as was the case during the editorial meeting of the teams in Hamburg between German and Polish youths. The extension of the project to the neighboring Poland, which especially suffered under German occupation, aimed to create an exchange between the war generation's grandchildren, expand the perspective regarding the Nazi era, and deepen mutual knowledge.  In the adjoining discussion roundtable with "Zeit" editor-in-chief Giovanni di Lorenzo, the unbiased encounter between young people from Poland and Germany was a reason for Horst Köhler to be optimistic about a united Europe in the fight against burgeoning right-wing radicalism. "Xenophobia and anti-Semitism have not disappeared from Germany. But young people are approaching one another, and they are alert and interested. They are, for example, engaged through the media. And that gives me hope for the future," Köhler said, summing things up.