Especially today, when anti-Semitic incidents are on the rise and the voices of the last survivors are slowly falling silent, it is more important than ever to come to terms with the darkest chapters of our history. Personal encounters with contemporary witnesses make the incomprehensible tangible and help to sharpen historical awareness. They are one of the most impressive ways of bringing history to life.

Irene Shashar, who survived the Warsaw ghetto as a small child, and Eitan Halley, who experienced the massacre at the Nova Music Festival, were guests at Salem International College. Two people whose stories got under the skin. Both made it clear to the students how important it is to preserve memories in order to better shape the future.

Dr Eva Umlauf, who visited Year 9 at the Salem site one day after the students had visited the Dachau memorial site, was equally impressive. Umlauf was tattooed in Auschwitz when she was two years old, but was able to escape the concentration camp with her mother. Her sentence "It happened and can happen again and again" left a lasting impression on the students.

The reports were moving, stirring, and at the same time an urgent reminder not to forget. They reminded us of the responsibility we bear as a society: to learn from history. Salem, with its own historical connection to the resistance against the Nazi regime, sees this task as a central obligation.