On the weekend following the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, 112 participants from 19 European countries gathered in Berlin at the Peace Congress. Among them were young people, multipliers, youth workers, youth leaders and professionals in historic education, as well as some young Ukrainians who currently live in other EU countries (Poland, Germany) because of the war in their home country.

The issue of war crimes, their history and their mechanisms was unfolded in speeches, workshops, training sessions and interactive informal education activities, focusing both on war crimes of the 20th century in Europe as on war crimes that happened recently and are committed currently in the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.The opening speech was held by Ukrainian human rights activist and journalist Tetiana Pechonchyk. She presented the work of her civil society organisation ZMINA for the prosecution of war crimes currently happening in Ukraine and committed by the Russian aggressor.

On Saturday morning and afternoon, two panels of each six workshops took place. The project partners from Hungary, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Poland and Slovenia offered workshops focusing on specific war crimes that happened in their countries, and on methods on how to approach the historic events and reflect on their commemoration until today. A workshop by the House of Wannsee conference focused on the Holocaust and war crimes committed by the National socialist regime, while the workshop of the commemoration center for German resistance discussed how Germans dealt with the regime and took a stand for human rights in resistance movements. The workshop of the federal agency for politic education shed the light on the mechanisms of current Russian propaganda in the war against Ukraine and the role of historic falsification.
Three training sessions offered the opportunity to gain methodical knowledge and to discuss ideas on how to become actively involved against forgetting of war crimes and totalitarianism and to contribute to peacebuilding. The training sessions set the focus on the engagement in the youth exchanges and on the long-term engagement for the Against forgetting project in the future network of ambassadors. On Saturday night, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Dr. h.c. Claus Kreß, LL. M. held a speech about the historic development of transitional justice and its current situation.

The programme was framed by a welcome session that helped the participants to get to know each other and to reflect on their expectations, and by a farewell session that allowed the participants to reflect on their learning outcomes and to give a feedback on the programme. The Peace Congress has been funded by the EU Commission's CERV (Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values) programme and the German Ministry of Youth.

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