Operation Desert (German: Unternehmen Wüste) was a German synthetic fuel project during World War II. Driven by the fuel needs of the German army at the last phase of the war, due to decreasing conventional petroleum supplies, it attempted to build a shale oil industrial production complex for utilization of Swabian Alb oil shale deposits.
Around 12.230 prisoners from seven nearby subcamps of the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp, were used as a workforce. The prisoners – mainly, men who had fought in some way for their freedom - came to the camps from almost all the German occupied countries in Europe. They suffered inhumane prison conditions with physically hard labor and around 5000 of them were tortured to death and murdered in this way, starting in december 1943. For many, the horror only ended at the end of April 1945, as the Nazis tried earnestly to get the prisoners away from the liberating French troops, with purpose of erasing evidences of any crime against humanity.
Today, 76 years later, there are only a few former prisoners alive; at that time they were young themselves. We, as European youth exchange, want to support keeping the remembrance of all the nazi victims alive. We want to produce a virtual reality tour in english language, so that people from all over the world can visit the ruins of the Operation Desert and find out more about the humans who were murdered there for a totalitarian system.
What to expect?
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Intercultural exchange, meet other youngs from Germany, Portugal and Romania
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Cultural evenings – share and experience our own culture and and others
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Discover beautiful nature of Swabian Alb and Black Forrest
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Interesting excursions - Natzweiler-Struthof (France) – Lake Constance – Stuttgart/ Tübingen
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Learn new technological skills
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Have fun and spend long nights at the campfire
It is an Erasmus+ Youth Mobility Project – all costs, accommodation, food, travel will be covered.
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