It's a bright spring day, flower petals are dancing in the wind in the yard.

But the students of the Droste-Hülshoff-Realschule in Dortmund lead the visitor into the basement of their school.

The young people are involved in the “Against the Right” working group, organize events, contest T-shirt campaigns against racism, and provide information about right-wing extremists.

They clean “stumbling blocks” from the art campaign of the same name, travel to Auschwitz thoroughly prepared and have a very special presentation: a permanent exhibition about the crimes of the Holocaust, which one wishes – the phrase is appropriate here – that it sets a precedent.

Ursula Kals

Editor in business, responsible for "Youth Writes".

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In the cold, inhospitable basement with the rough concrete floor and the heating pipes on the low ceiling, the girls and boys traced the suffering of Jews in eight impressive stations, from exclusion, disenfranchisement, persecution to expulsion and extermination.

This is shown by the fate of the Hayum merchant family from Dortmund-Kirchlinde.

"Because Hannelore was Jewish" is the title.

Josef Hayum had five children, a foster son and granddaughter Hannelore, who lived at Heckelbeckstrasse 1.

Koray and Rike from the school group introduce the family to lovingly staged photos.

Then Chantal takes over, she is now 19 years old and went to the grammar school next door, but remains loyal to the AG and reports on the systematic dismantling of democracy in front of boards with inscriptions such as “Jews are not welcome in our German forests”.

Kevin and Sebastian lead us to a mountain of books stacked in front of a poster of blazing flames.

There is also a historical photo of Hansaplatz in May 1933 and steles with lists of outlawed authors.

Lasse reports on the race laws.

A park bench with the inscription “Only for Aryans” indicates what they meant in the marginalized everyday life.

This touches many visitors more than reading school texts.

The Droste students learned harrowing and very personal stories from very special guests who have taken them through the basement rooms over the years: survivors of the extermination.

For example Judith Rhodes, whose mother was saved by the Kindertransport to England, Michael Schliesser from Amsterdam, who survived the Westerbork transit camp, and Josef Aron, who suffered in Bergen-Belsen.

You all saw the exhibition.

Erika Rosenberg-Band, Emilie Schindler's biographer, who and her husband Oskar saved about 1,200 Jews from death with the help of the famous "List" were also received here.

But Laurie Larmer, a former Australian bomber pilot who had flown air raids on Dortmund, was also a guest at the school.

In addition to the commitment of teachers, this was also made possible by the Jugendring Dortmund.

“We have an educational partnership.

This is not possible without financial help,” says history and German teacher Elke Podany.