September 16, 2004 | Read Time: 1 minute
World War II still casts long shadows in Germany, where a nonprofit group formed in 1958 continues to attract young people seeking to help those who were wronged by the war.
In its first years, Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste — or Action Reconciliation Service for Peace — sent volunteers abroad to rebuild churches, synagogues, and other buildings destroyed in the war. Today, participants travel throughout Europe and to Israel and the United States to help people who suffered at the hands of the Nazi regime and to participate in an array of community-service projects.
By confronting the past, the Berlin nonprofit organization hopes to build a future free of prejudice. The charity places approximately 180 volunteers a year in nursing homes, homeless shelters, education centers, and at memorial sites and social-justice groups.
“Even today, there are survivors of the Holocaust who meet Germans for the first time and for them it’s very hard,” says Johannes Zerger, a spokesman for the charity. “It’s a healing process. It’s also a healing process for the Germans who work with them.”
Often, the groups that receive help from the volunteers cover some of the costs, but donations from private sources pay for the majority of Action Reconciliation’s nearly $3.4-million budget. Its 28 staff members recruit volunteers, who are between the ages of 19 and 25, by working with schools, employment agencies, and churches.
Here, Bernard Steubing, a volunteer with the charity, visits a nursing-home resident in Jerusalem who survived the Holocaust.
