Joachim  (“Volksbund deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge” youth team) .

The German association “Volksbund deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge”and the Russian research group “Nadjeschda” started a youth camp for the 3^{rd time.}

^{The 1st camp took place in the Summer of 2000. 10 Russian and 12 German youths took part. The Russians came from Stepnoi (near Rossoschka) and Rossoschka. We stayed there 14 days. What did we in these 14 Days? I’ll try to explain. Russian and German youths worked, ate and lived together, prejudices were reduced and the Germans learnded a lot about the Russian culture. The Germans enjoyed the famous Russian hospitality. We learned the Russian language and our Russian friends learned our German language, both youth groups growing together. Strangers became friends. But how ? I think because we did so many things together. In this time we enjoyed trips to Volgograd and became acquainted with the military-historical events in the Stalingrad area. We visited Mamaev Kurgan, the Panorama Museum, the Obelisk of Volgograd and become acquainted with the city of Volgograd. We visited interesting places in the region of Volgograd too. We were in Goroditsche. We visited the church and had a big culture programme and a meeting with the administration of Goroditsche. We also made a boat travel on the Volga. We crossed the Volga and stayed on a little island in this gigantic river. We had to swim in the Volga, because the sand was too hot. It burned our feet. We drove to the Don too. It was near Wertjatschi. The weather was naturally fine and we had a little BBQ with shashlik and crabs. Bon Appetit ! We also went to the Steppe of “Kalmikija”. Of course a visit to a disco ship and some parties were fun too !!!}

But our programme was not only culture and fun; we worked in the Russian Steppe ! Our Slogan is “Work for Peace”, so we did it. Just imagine you are in the Steppe, it is always windy and about 40° C hot.. You don’t know where you are -- is it Asia or Europe? The view is nearly endless and you know what happened there 60 years ago. We started the work -- it was a lot of hard work with such temperatures. Sometimes it was also psychologically hard also. It’s not easy when you never did such work before. I will try to describe it. First we drove to the big cemetary near Rossoschka and got a introduction from Galina (she is the boss of the group “Nadjeschda”) about the history, the facts of the cemetary and the war. We started to work, and did a lot of different work in different places. We were not only in Rossoschka but the whole neighbourhood. We maintained Russian monuments and graves. We pulled weeds, we cleaned edges of paths, we painted and cleaned name boards, we washed the crosses and the memorial stones. Our Russian friends found some fallen Russian soldiers, and some could be identified. We prepared the official funeral. We dug the graves, and painted and filled the coffins. The official funeral was a big celebratian with some interesting words from some Russian veterans. We thought about the Russian soldiers and tormented population. But what do you think when you do such work? Sure, it was sad work, but important too. I thought about this war and why were so many people killed. Why and for what ??? Reconciliation is very important for us and the next generations! I think about the many unexplained fates and about the Russian point of view. So many young people and soldiers were killed. It’s incomprehensible… I think that we all have one wish, never never never again.

Balkas,west side of Don river area.

Rossoshka memorial.

Arrived to Gumrak airport,

and some more photos:

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