The Bethe Foundation has doubled the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research’s funding for the “Youth remembers” programme. The Ministry announced the change on Tuesday, raising the annual grant from the federal child‑and‑youth plan from 1.75 million euros to about 3.5 million euros, now dedicated to youth group visits to memorial sites.
Federal Education Minister Karin Prien (CDU) stressed that keeping the memory of the National Socialist crimes alive is especially crucial now that only a few Holocaust witnesses remain. She noted that exchanges with young people who have already taken part in “Youth remembers” trips have shown her how valuable it is for them to experience authentic sites of Nazi atrocity “face‑to‑face” and to develop a sense of responsibility for democracy. “It is a strong signal that, together with the Bethe Foundation, we can double the funding for memorial visits, enabling even more young people to have this experience” Prien added.
Erich and Roswitha Bethe explained that since 2010, the support and organization of memorial trips for youth has been the foundation’s main focus. They have already enabled more than 40,000 students from 12 German states to visit the extermination camps of Auschwitz, Belzec, Treblinka, Sobibor, and Majdanek. “We hope to contribute to ensuring that such crimes never recur, even in a small degree” the founders said.
