World War 2, our History and its cultural legacy Erasmus Project

Project Title

World War 2, our History and its cultural legacy

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage; Teaching and learning of foreign languages; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

This project has brought together five schools from France, Germany, Greece, Poland and the Czech Republic. It has presented all of them with unique opportunities to learn, in very many different aspects.
The first one to be mentioned in this context is the use of English as a “lingua franca”. Not only have all participants deepened their language skills considerably, but the project has also made them aware of the importance of foreign languages in general.
These broadened communicative skills have definitely contributed to a more general mutual understanding of each other’s culture, each other’s history and the shared responsibility for a common European future to be one of peace and tolerance. This has been achieved by taking a closer look at the grave mistakes of the past with its millions of young European lives being lost in bloody battles, air raids, death camps, etc.
Visiting places like the former GESTAPO prison in Cologne (Germany), the D-day beaches of Normandy (France) or the memorial in Lidice (Czech Republic), to name but a few, enabled the participants to come to a much more profound and deep emotional understanding of the terrible events that took place there than this would ever have been possible in a normal school-lesson context.
Unfortunately, the Corona pandemic, which struck shortly before the 5th mobility to Poland with a scheduled visit to the Auschwitz death camp, affected the project in a very severe manner.
Due to schools, regions and whole countries in various lockdowns, due to students and teachers being confronted with the necessity to adapt to new and unfamiliar forms of digital learning, due to a shift of priorities in life generally and school life in particular, and finally due to the general impact of all of this on all of us, work on our project was virtually forced to come to a standstill.
When we realised that even the extension of the project would not allow us to do the remaining mobilities to Poland and Greece as planned, we transferred whatever possible to online activities. This resulted in virtual mobilities, were timelines, Kahoot-quizzes and other materials were created.
All in all, it is well justified to say that many objectives of this project have still been achieved. This is particularly owed to the excellent organisation and planning of the mobilities. The choice of places visited, as well as the balance between study visits, multinational workshops and social activities, not only enabled a deep insight into different European cultures but also contributed to and promoted active European citizenship. This is clearly visible in the results created by the participants, such as articles written, videos produced and web quests created, as well as their comments during workshops and guided tours.
To give others the opportunity to benefit from this project, various teaching materials were created, which have been published on a project website.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 137702,6 Eur

Project Coordinator

collège du Houtland & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Heinrich-Böll-Gymnasium Troisdorf
• Szkola Podstawowa im. Bohaterow Powstania Styczniowego w Nowej Slupi
• Tetarto Gymnasio Chanion
• Zakladni skola Olomouc, Zeyerova 28, prispevkova organizace