Youth4Peace

My name is Agata and I have been working at the International Youth Meeting Center of the Kreisau Foundation for two and a half years. During this time, I have already organized many projects and youth encounters. But this time, as a participant in the #Youth4Peace program from 3 to 10 May 2025 in Berlin, I was able to experience the importance of international exchange in a new - and at the same time familiar - role.

Together with 80 young people:

→ from the Balkans, where states do not always act in the interests of its own citizens,
→ from Central Europe, where in various countries - including Poland - the rights of national minorities, queer people, people with disabilities and people with a migration background are violated,
→ from Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, where war is still raging
→ from the USA, where anti-democratic movements are becoming ever louder,

→ from Japan, a country that experienced a nuclear bomb attack,
→ from Israel, where people are confronted with an ongoing humanitarian crisis
→ and finally from Western Europe, where social inequalities and discrimination are still present despite 80 years of peace since the end of the Second World War,

we discussed openly and with hope what we can do for peace, democracy and the participation of young people.

For peace, which we cannot take for granted, which we must value above all else and actively preserve.

For democracy, whose limits and risks we understand and which we help to shape because we recognize the right of every person to freedom and a self-determined life.

And finally, for genuine participation of young people in social decisions, which does not stop at pretty photos.

By visiting the Sachsenhausen Memorial and talking to a contemporary witness - the Warsaw insurgent and former prisoner of Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen, Bogdan Bartnikowski - we tried to remember the past with dignity. Especially in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, in order to better understand our present.

Nine international youth work organizations have cooperated together for the first time to create this meeting space for us. What has emerged from this is the understanding that democracy and peace do not come from nowhere - and that only through courageous openness can young people make a real contribution to building a conscious civil society.

At the meeting with the newly elected Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz, we had the opportunity to talk to him for 40 minutes. We asked questions that were really important to us - in the hope that we could show what young people are focusing on today.

The “Agenda for Peace” is also a result of our reflections - with concrete demands and visions for the world we are striving for. And we firmly believe that international exchange and education are the key to achieving these goals.

We are returning home with a new perspective.
And it is not rose-tinted glasses, but a perspective of deeper commitment and determination to stand up for peace.

The last sentence of the “Agenda for Peace” summarizes our common promise:

We are ready for peace.

Agata Bengel

📸 Photos: (C) Jennifer Sanchez | vonZynski.com