Memories

Roman Brandstaetter

Agnieszka Ba³ut Class II f III Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace, Tarnów, Poland

On 3rd of November 2006 classes IIg and IIh from a Polish partner school organised another activity connected with Socrates Comenius Project.
The students prepared an academy about Roman Brandstaetter as a celebration of his 100th birth anniversary.
Roman Brandstaetter was a famous Polish-Jewish writer and a poet who was born in Tarnów, and lived near our school. After World War II had broken out he emigrated to Palestine where he had his first writing debut. His works are devoted to religious, moral and historical themes. The academy was attended by students and teachers of our school who were very eager to see the performance. We were delighted to listen to some classical music played by the young pianist and two violinists - students from our school. The music corresponded very well with the theme of the meeting. During the academy students read some information about the writer's biography and others recited his poems. It was accompanied by classical music played in the background. Thanks to the meeting students could become more familiar with poetry by Roman Brandstaetter and hear about various kinds of borders existing between people, nations and his literary works.

Our "Mental Borderline"

By Alisia Muresan, Eminescu College, Romania

"Borderline - The frontier: a no man’s land, a passage way, bridge and barrier between people, countries, stories”
In my opinion, this quotation resumes the essence of the project: the border that we, humans, have created amongst us, the border created by different cultures, religions, languages or education, and above all – the border that is the most difficult to surpass – the one „born” from our intolerance, from the wall that we have built throughout ages between us.
The most worrying thing is that this wall which surrounds our minds and does not permit us to judge without all these prejudices is not a wall that appears only in relation with other peoples, but in the case of the same nation, too. Humans, in general, tend to become more and more intolerant with each other, more and more introvert and reserved, not being open minded, nor willing to give other people access to their minds or souls. This is, from my point of view, a huge mistake, because it leads to frustration, misunderstandings or even hate.
A peaceful and happy life requires love, understanding, and above all cooperation and respect. If we refuse to cooperate we cannot reach the point where we feel fulfilled, because our happiness depends very often on the happiness of the people who surround us, and one cannot be happy by making other people feel miserable.
This could be very well applied on nations. It is vital for us to understand that we are all very different: we think different, speak, look and live in different ways. But having more money or a more glorious past does not mean that a nation is superior to another. We are all equal from nature; even though the society creates a hierarchy.
Understanding this represents the first step to understanding each other. It is true that - because we have different cultures and other kinds of education - it may sometimes seem difficult for us to get along. But if we do not let ourselves be deceived by prejudices and if we are willing to find out the truth that is hidden underneath the surface covered with appearances I’m sure that we can find the path that leads to breaking this mental border, to a peaceful and fruitful collaboration.
And this is, as I see it, the main purpose of our project: demolishing this wall in our mentality, surpassing the intolerance and all the prejudices.

Workshops