Today in Wolfsburg, Volkswagen employee Ines Doberanzke (43) from Helmstedt has received the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. The Polish Ambassador to Germany, Dr. Jerzy Margański, presented the honor to Ms. Doberanzke, who was born in Magdeburg. It was awarded by the President of the Republic of Poland in recognition of her outstanding services to reconciliation between Germany and Poland and her achievements in connection with the dissemination of knowledge concerning Auschwitz Concentration Camp.
At the Volkswagen Group Academy, Ines Doberanzke is responsible for the coordination of memorial work as well as international exchange and meeting programs for apprentices and managers. For more than 20 years, the company has co-operated closely with the International Auschwitz Committee (IAC) in Berlin and the memorial site and the International Youth Meeting Center at Oświęcim/Auschwitz (Poland).
The Polish Ambassador had invited representatives of the company and the Works Council as well as family members and friends of Ines Doberanzke, who holds a degree in social work, as well as her colleagues from Poland and Germany to attend the ceremony at the Volkswagen Group Academy.
Ralph Linde, Head of the Volkswagen Group Academy, said: “Memorial work teaches our apprentices from Germany and Poland qualities such as discernment, tolerance and cultural openness. It promotes responsibility and humanity. Joint work at the Auschwitz memorial site makes young people ambassadors of remembrance. In pursuing this approach as a team member of the education project, Ines Doberanzke has demonstrated considerable personal dedication to the performance of this task over the past 12 years.”
In his citation, IAC Vice-President Christoph Heubner emphasized: “It was survivors of Auschwitz who nominated Ines Doberanzke for this honor. With her commitment, her competence and her empathy, she has become a trusted friend of Holocaust survivors.” Leszek Szuster, Director of the International Youth Meeting Center, added: “With her heart and her entire personality, Ines Doberanzke embodies the commitment of Volkswagen to the Youth Meeting Center and the maintenance of the Auschwitz memorial site. In Auschwitz, she has paved the way for new approaches to understanding between young people from Germany and Poland.”
Gunnar Kilian, Secretary-General of the Volkswagen Group Works Council and member of the Foundation Council of the International Youth Meeting Center, emphasized: “With considerable sensitivity, Ines Doberanzke accompanies our apprentices during their visits to Oświęcim and brings them together with young people from Poland. An essential element of this program is joint work on the maintenance of the memorial site. At this place which has become so firmly embedded in our collective memory, young people also work intensively on the history of relations between Germany and Poland. They build bridges across borders.” Kilian summed up: “Our colleague is making a valuable social contribution not only for Poland but also for Germany within a united Europe.”
Ines Doberanzke thanked the Polish Ambassador: “I am very happy to receive this honor, which I accept on behalf of all the apprentices and all my colleagues who are committed to work on the memorial site at Volkswagen. I was especially moved to learn that we had been nominated for this honor by survivors of Auschwitz.”
Prior to the ceremony, Ambassador Margański informed himself about vehicle production at Volkswagen’s plant in Wolfsburg. A tour of the production facilities for the Golf and the Golf Sportsvan rounded off the Polish diplomat’s framework program.
Memorial site work and youth meetings at Oświęcim / Auschwitz
Over the past 26 years, about 2,600 young people, vocational school students from Poland and apprentices from the Volkswagen Group, have taken part in youth meetings in Poland and together contributed to maintaining the memorial site at the former Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Since 2008, more than 300 master craftsman and craftswomen as well as other managers from the company have also participated in this work. The program includes meetings with survivors of the Holocaust and of the National Socialist concentration camp at Auschwitz. These meetings and study visits are a key element in the corporate culture of remembrance at Volkswagen, which is supported equally strongly by company management and employee representative bodies.