Preserving memory and promoting prevention: Volkswagen apprentices visit “Flashes of Memory” exhibition in Berlin

Qualified apprentices and trainees from Volkswagen study the impact of pictures taken during the Holocaust

- Roundtable discussions and guided tours of the exhibition „Flashes of Memory: Photography during the Holocaust“ at the Museum für Fotografie in Berlin

- Top apprentices from different Volkswagen locations around the globe and apprentices from Volkswagen’s headquarter in Wolfsburg engage with corporate remembrance activities

- Volkswagen is education partner of the exhibition developed by Yad Vashem

Volkswagen welcomes 46 top talents from 39 Volkswagen facilities in 19 countries to honor their outstanding apprenticeship achievements. Yesterday, the “Best Apprentice Award” winners traveled to Berlin to visit the exhibition

Flashes of Memory: Photography during the Holocaust

that is supported by Volkswagen and integrated in its corporate culture of remembrance. In a soon next step, a group of apprentices from the Wolfsburg region is going to visit the exhibition at the Berlin-based Museum für Fotografie.

At the museum, the multi-national group took part in a guided tour of the pictures and films which had been made during the time of the Holocaust. By unveiling perspectives of perpetrators and victims, these visual documents underline the importance to see not only images but also their contexts. In July, Volkswagen is going to enable a second group of apprentices to visit the exhibition. Currently completing their apprenticeships at Volkswagen facilities in and around Wolfsburg, many of the young women and men already volunteered for support work at the memorial site of the former concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Gunnar Kilian, Member of the Board of Volkswagen AG for Human Resources and member of the Foundation Council of the International Youth Meeting Center in Auschwitz, explains on the occasion of the exhibition visits:

Maintaining the memory of the victims and the survivors of the Holocaust plays a major role for us at Volkswagen. By enabling people to learn more about the origins and unfolding of the darkest of all chapters of German history the exhibition ‘Flashes of Memory’ is an important reminder for future generations. Our apprentices will come to get personal insights of the lives of people in that time and leave as ambassadors of a culture of remembrance that encompasses responsibility for how we live together today and in the future.

Dieter Landenberger, Head of Volkswagen Heritage Communications, welcomed the visitors in Berlin and explained the elements and importance of Volkswagen’s corporate culture of remembrance. For more than 30 years, the Volkswagen Group has been collaborating with the International Auschwitz Committee and has been regularly encouraged apprentices to help as volunteers with the preservation of the memorial site in Auschwitz.

Daniela Cavallo, Chairwoman of the Group Works Council, says:

For Volkswagen, remembrance and responsibility are at the core of the corporate culture. We are particularly proud of the commitment of our young apprentices to the memorial work at Auschwitz. The Holocaust survivors regularly tell us how much they appreciate the dedication of our young people. For Volkswagen, this commitment will always remain a top priority.

The Volkswagen Group supports the exhibition

Flashes of Memory: Photography during the Holocaust

as partner of the education program. Since March 24, 2023, the exhibition has been on view at the Museum für Fotografie in Berlin. It features a number of personal photographs from the years of the Holocaust and links them to critical reviews of their individual impact. Further to its presentation at the World Holocaust Remembrance Center Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, people can now experience the exhibition for the first time at an international museum outside Israel.