Is it possible to learn to stand up for one’s beliefs with the help of the past?
We were very honoured to have Professor Erika Rosenberg de Band for a two-day project with the
topic ‘moral courage – Oskar and Emilie Schindler as well as Carl Lutz’ at our Netzschkauer
Oberschule on 29th and 30th November 2021.
Therefore as we continued our meetings from previous years, we also appreciated the significance
of this project held in class 10 especially this time for subjects like History, German and Ethics and
Social Sciences.
In Germany it is assigned to debate the book and the movie ‘Schindlers’s List’ in class 10. Our
students had the rare opportunity to talk to Professor Rosenberg who is a contemporary witness of
the 2nd generation as well as a friend and confidant of Emilie Schindler. Discussing and researching
the facts were the mayor tasks of the students but with Professor Rosenberg the students were able
to get the real background to the story.
The project started with a presentation of Professor Rosenberg. She stated in an impressive way the
relation between past and present concerning moral courage in society. The students were carefully
listening not only to the heroic examples of the Schindlers but also to the lesser known story of Carl
Lutz a Swiss diplomat in Hungary.
Many discussions with our guest took place and gave our students the possibility to learn something
about moral courage and humanity for their own future. A group of students had another rare
privilige. It was possible to organize an interview via Skype with Professor Luis A. BerlangaAlbrecht at 13:00 (CET). In Mexico it was 6:00 in the morning. Professor Berlanga-Albrecht is the
nephew of Hilde Albrecht who was a spy and lover of Oskar Schindler. Hilde Albrecht worked also
hard to save as many Jews as possible in that time.
Professor Berlanga-Albrecht was able to speak about moral concepts and humanity not only in
Mexican culture but also in the whole world. Furthermore he told the story of his aunt Hilde and
gave some personal information of his family in this exciting interview. Of course the content of
this interview gave our students the possibility to acknowledge their skills in English and also
develop them further.
All the excitement of the first day was put into ambition to research and digitalize information on
Hilde Albrecht and eight other topics. Professor Rosenberg was there to assist the students in their
work.
Our students saved all the information and experiences on tablets and presented those for everyone
in our assembly hall. Afterwards our teachers and Professor Rosenberg said that they were
impressed with the work and the results of the project. Our thanks go to our guest from Argentina
for the amazing work with our students. It is great to see Professor Rosenberg’s work and
experiences get to students who appreciate history.
German text by Chr. Mühle
English translation by C. Schönicke.