Antifascist Feminist Volunteer Work Stay at the Site of the Former Uckermark Youth Concentration Camp and Later Extermination Site / August 19-28, 2024

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There will be another Volunteer Work Stay at the Uckermark Concentration Camp Memorial Site in 2024. We would like to spend time together on the memorial site building and repairing where necessary, as well as engaging with the history of the concentration camp and the survivors’ stories. This year, the Volunteer Work Stay will take place from August 19th to 28th, 2024.

When: August 19-28, 2024
Where: Himmelpfort (Brandenburg)
Registration:The registration deadline is 31 May 2024. If you are interested, please send us an e-mail to baucamp-gedenkort-uckermark@systemli.org. If you would like to receive a spot reserved for people who have experienced classism, simply add the keyword “quota” to the subject line of your e-mail (for more information see below). It is important to us that as many participants as possible can stay for the entire period. The number of spaces is limited, so it’s best to register as early as possible.
Financial Contribution:The financial contribution for the work stay depends on your income and assets. In recent years, the benchmark has been between 0 % and 20 % or more of your disposable income. We would like people who have limited funds to be able to participate as well. To make that possible, we ask people with more financial resources to pay more. You will receive more information about this upon registration.
Educational Leave (“Bildungszeit”): We applied for the registration of the Volunteer Work Stay as educational leave. The “Bildungszeit” program in Germany allows you to take paid leave from work to participate in a state-recognized further education course. Anyone who is employed or in a de facto employment relationship can take advantage of this opportunity. Unfortunately, not all federal states offer educational leave. (Further information: https://www.shecareerblog.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-educational-leave/). Please let us know upon registration if you would like to have this count as educational leave.

Who we are

The Initiative für einen Gedenkort ehemaliges KZ Uckermark e.V (Initiative for an Uckermark Concentration Camp Memorial) conducts research on the history of the former youth concentration camp and later extermination site, seeks to engage with the survivors and their relatives, and is continuously working towards the creation of a worthy commemoration site there. The yearly Volunteer Work Stays are an important part of that effort. In addition to the maintenance of the memorial site, anti-fascists from different movements, places and generations can get to know each other and build future networks.

The site

The former youth concentration camp was constructed in 1942, approximately 90 kilometers north of Berlin. It was located right next to the Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp and was built by its prisoners. Only one youth concentration camp was established specifically for the imprisonment of girls* and young women* during National Socialism and not many people know about it.
From 1942 to 1945, around 1,200 girls* and young women* were incarcerated in the Uckermark Concentration Camp. They were subjected to forced labour in the harshest living conditions.
Shortly before the end of the war, in January 1945, the SS built an extermination site in a large area of this camp and murdered about 5,000 women* there. Many of those women* came from the neighboring concentration camp, Ravensbrück, as well as other camps. A lot of them were Jewish.
The Uckermark Memorial Site is located directly next to the Ravensbrück Memorial Site in Fürstenberg/Havel.

What should I expect at the Volunteer Work Stay?

During the Volunteer Work Stay, we would like to make space for people to come together to engage with the history of the memorial site and its survivors, to meet survivors and their family and friends and to remember together.
For us, one form of remembrance is working together at the memorial site. This includes various activities: mowing the meadow, cleaning and repairing signs, re-painting path markings, putting up new signs, fixing the info boxes, cleaning, painting. There is usually something for everyone to do; you don’t need any special skills and we would like to create a space where we can learn from each other and our differences are accepted. It is also ok to come to the Volunteer Work Stay even if you don’t want to work at the memorial site.
In addition to working at the memorial site and spending time engaging in personal and general examination of this subject matter, there can and should be time to retreat from the group, to go swimming, to read, to cook and bake, to play table tennis, to take walks, to go eat ice cream in the next town, etc.

Tools and Equipment

We do have a few tools available (such as a brush cutter, a few shovels and rakes, a few wheelbarrows, some garden tools…), but if you have access to tools that you would like to use or make available, you are very welcome to bring them with you. Above all:
– cordless machines such as cordless screwdrivers or cordless saws
– hand tools (hammers, handsaws)
– personal protective equipment (footwear, gloves, hearing protection)
– all types of gardening/landscaping tools

There is no electricity on the site where we are working, so cordless tools and hand tools are particularly useful. If you would like to bring something or if you have any further questions, please let us know when you register.

Who is invited?

All women, lesbians, intersex, non-binary, trans, and agender individuals 18 or older are invited to spend nine days learning about the memorial site, engaging with the history of the place and antifascist remembrance politics, as well as contributing to self-organized construction and repair projects. We want to reserve half of the spaces for people who have experienced classism*. Classism plays an important role in the history of the Uckermark concentration camp – since most of the minors were brought here because they faced discrimination from welfare authorities for supposedly being “asocial”– and it is also central to our political work as an initiative. The political left is becoming increasingly academic and middle-class norms are often adopted without question. Even in leftist spaces, people who have experienced classism (e.g. people who are poor or working class) are often invisible. That’s why we introduced a quota. Still, we welcome all registrations. The organization group includes people with and without experiences of classism.
If you want to make use of the quota, please write “I want to make use of the quota” or just the word “quota” in the subject of the email when registering.
As we only have limited places available, we will allocate them according to the order of registration. Preference will be given to people who can come for the whole period and we will reserve enough spots for people who have experienced classism.

Where are we staying and what will it be like there?

We will stay at a seminar house in Himmelpfort, which is about 25 minutes by bike from the Fürstenberg train station and about 15 minutes from the Uckermark Concentration Camp Memorial site. You can either stay in a room in the house or camp in the yard. The rooms have 2-6 beds, which we will divvy out together on the first day of the Volunteer Work Stay.
There is a large yard where we can eat our meals if the weather is nice, otherwise there are two large common rooms inside the house. The yard also has its own lake access for swimming.
Unfortunately, both the house where we are staying and the site itself are not fully accessible. There is a small staircase to the house entrance and also several stairs and thresholds in the house. Please contact us about any specific needs and we’ll figure out what’s possible.

How do I get to the Volunteer Work Stay? How do we get from the Fürstenberg train station or the vicarage to the memorial site?

You can get to Fürstenberg (Havel) with the regional train. From there, it is 25 minutes by bike or 15 minutes by car to Himmelpfort. The memorial site is half way in between Himmelpfort and the Fürstenberg train station. We highly recommend to come with your bike so you can bike from the house to the memorial site on the days you are working there. The cycle path through the forest is relaxed and flat and it takes about 15 minutes to get to the site. If it is not feasible for you to bring your own bike, but you would still like to have one, please send us an email. However, there will be at least one car at the house for shopping trips and to transport tools to the memorial site, so it will be possible to go along in the car if you can’t or don’t want to ride a bike.
We are aware that it isn’t safe for everyone to travel alone through Brandenburg. So we would like to arrange a meetup point to travel together for anyone who would like to. We can also take some people by car (we will arrange this in advance over email). We are happy to coordinate together to think of ways you can be protected on the journey. Please let us know if you would like to talk about that.

How is the volunteer work stay organized? What is the schedule? What will each day be like?

The Volunteer Work Stays are self-organized. There is a small group that takes care of the basic preparation in advance of the event, such as financing, the basic structure of our time there and a schedule for the time spent together. Once we are all there, we’ll organize the day to day together. So we’ll figure out who does what everyday, like who will cook or go shopping, who wants to take on particular construction projects, etc.

We spend most days together and start the day eating breakfast together and eat dinner together in the evening. During the day, we will spend time at the memorial site, be visited by survivors or their loved ones, and have workshops. It is always possible to decide not to participate in any of the group activities. A schedule will be provided on the first day of the work stay. If you have any of your own ideas for the event schedule, feel free to contact us and let us know in advance or just bring it up once we are there.
We do not organize childcare, but if you would like to come with children, please contact us by email. When you register, please let us know which languages you speak and whether you can imagine interpreting for others so that we can organise further interpreters if necessary.

Costs & Registration

We have expenses for accommodation, food, tickets, building materials, fees, etc. We are applying for funds from foundations, but unfortunately this will not be enough. We want to make it possible for people with little or no income to participate in the volunteer work stay. To make this possible, we would like people who have more money or assets to pay more accordingly. More information will follow after the registration.
Preference will be given to people who can come for the whole period.

If you are interested, please register by May 31st.

Contact / Registration:

baucamp-gedenkort-uckermark@systemli.org

*WLINTA stands for people who identify as Women Lesbians inter nonbinary trans ageder

* Classism is discrimination based on class origin or a person’s belonging to a particular class, which limits access to housing, education, healthcare, social participation, recognition, financial resources, and more…

* An asterisk (*) is used in order to include as many gender identities as possible. The asterisk after women* and girls* demonstrates that although the inmates of the Uckermark camp were identified that way, we do not know how they identified themselves.

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