On the 21st of March, the first stages of our educational visit to Amsterdam came to a close.

On the 21st of March the first stages of our educational visit to Amsterdam, organized by UNITED for Intercultural Action and the Center for Interethnic Cooperation, came to a close. The participants of the trip had been divided into two groups; the fist coming to Amsterdam from the 17th to the 21st of March and the second from the 21st to the 25th.

The first group was comprised of the following people:

1. 1. Anna Shreyder – Astrakhan
2. 2. Maxim Zhilyaev – Moscow
3. 3. Levon Mukanyan- Moscow
4. 4. Ruzanna Mukanyan- Moscow
5. 5. Muslikh Sharipoy- Perm
6. 6. Georgity Kurstilay- Krasnodar
7. 7. Aminate Shamova –Krasnodar
8. 8. Saadet Nadzhafova-Samara
9. 9. Anastasiy Sviyazor-Samara

Thus, the first stage of the visit concluded successfully.

The first two days, representatives from the first group were given some free time to familiarize themselves with the city and see some of the main tourist attractions.

On the third day, the educational training part of the visit commenced. It began with a visit from a representative from the Amsterdam Bureau for the Fight against Discrimination, Yessika Silversmit. She recounted the history of the creation of her organization and the difficult situation of discrimination in Holland 20 years ago.

Afterwards, the participants set off to the Anne Frank museum, where they were accompanied by a tour guide throughout the whole museum and learned about the tragic fate of the little Jewish girl.

The last event of that day was a visit to the Resistance Museum, where we were told how part of the Dutch population accepted the German fascist regime, but part of the population continued to fight it.

That evening, we were free to explore the city on our own.

On the fourth day, the participants of the first group took a minibus to the German town of Osnabruck, where they visited the Augustaschacht memorial. The memorial is located in a prison where the Gestapo tortured inmates from the German occupied territories and forced them to work for the fascist regime.

After a quick luch, we listened to a presentation on the theme of “The political situation in Germany”, given by one of the memorial’s volunteers, Tatyana Vaytulevich. The presentation was followed by a discussion of the problem of right-wing extremism.

Afterwards, another of the memorial’s workers, Mikhal Gander, led an excursion through Osnabruck and told us more about the town’s origins.

After eating in the German bar Rampendal, the participants again took the minibus and returned to Amsterdam.

This was the first group’s final evening in Amsterdam. The next morning, they thanked the trip’s organizers and went to the airport, where they met with the participants of the second group, who had yet to see Amsterdam.