Looking back. Looking ahead. 2020-2025

126   YOUTH PROGRAMMES Looking ahead – youth programmes One of the main challenges for concentration camp memorial sites today is ensuring that the history of National Socialism remains accessible and understandable for future generations when contemporary witnesses are no longer with us. As we will soon be living in a world without contemporary witnesses and their personal testimonies, virtual and multi-perspective educational approaches are becoming increasingly important to present complex historical realities. Instead of merely presenting historical facts, modern concepts foster critical reflection and allow people to understand the underlying mechanisms of oppressive regimes. This enables the history of National Socialism to be experienced as both historically grounded and relevant to the present – a topic that evokes empathy, preserves memory and resists the urge to forget. Both the Dachau Memorial and the Flossenbürg Memorial provide a variety of innovative methods and approaches to allow young people, in particular, to engage more deeply with this chapter of our history.