IRD Activities

• Long Term Voluntary Service

  Every year Action Reconciliation Service for Peace sends about 180 women and men - mostly young people between 18 and 27 - to countries that particularly suffered under the Nazi regime. The volunteers support and accompany survivors of the Shoah and their descendants, work at memorial sites, support elderly and disabled people, socially disadvantaged people and refugees, and get involved in community projects and anti-racism initiatives. The long-term volunteer services are not only an important support to the work of ARSP's partner organisations on the ground but also an important new step to an understanding across borders. Due to the various encounters with people in another country, the volunteers gain sustainable intercultural and interreligious experiences and experience the presence of history

• Short Term Voluntary Service

  ARSP's summer camp programme offers interesting and enriching possibilities for personal contacts across national, cultural and religious borders. Volunteers maintain Jewish cemeteries and Nazi memorial sites. They are working in social services and engage in intercultural and interreligious projects. They also exchange information on current and historical issues. All summer camps are run by volunteers

• Public Relations

  ARSP wants to provide the community with insights from the Christian-Jewish dialogue and from the dialogue with Muslims. ARSP takes a public stand against anti-Semitism, right-wing extremism and racism and is strongly committed to the compensation of Nazi persecution, interreligious and intercultural dialogue and a just peace. In the triennially journal "zeichen", ARSP takes up these issues and informs about the work of the volunteers and project partners

• Educational Work

  ARSP wants to encourage a debate in society by organising events, workshops, seminars and conferences on topics such as remembrance, politics, national identities, and interreligious dialogue. An important part is the project area ‘interculturalism'. In this, ARSP deals with the question of how the confrontation with National Socialism in the Germany of today increasingly characterised by interculturalism changed and how it needs to change. ARSP supports exhibitions on the topics of the confrontation with Auschwitz and the work and history of ARSP. Study trips to Minsk, St. Petersburg and Moscow, and in the United States provide an opportunity to get to know the countries and the work of the ARSP volunteers on site. In addition, ARSP advises on planning memorial trips to Poland and facilitates subsidies from the German-Polish Youth Office for such trips.

Main Focus Countries of Activities

Germany - Belgium - France - UK - Israel - Netherlands - Norway - Poland - Russian Federation - Czechia - Ukraine - USA - Belarus - Belarus - Belgium - Bosnia and Herzegovina - Germany - France - Greece - UK - Israel - Italy - Lithuania - Netherlands - Norway - Poland - Romania - Russian Federation - Czechia - Turkey - Ukraine - USA - Belarus - Belgium - Germany - France - UK - Israel - Netherlands - Norway - Poland - Russian Federation - Czechia - Ukraine - USA - Belarus - Belgium - Germany - France - UK - Israel - Netherlands - Norway - Poland - Russian Federation - Czechia - Ukraine - USA