The 43rd International Youth Meeting Dachau took place from July 26th until August 8th, 2025, in the Max Mannheimer Haus Dachau. This year we had participants from Albania, Algeria, Canada, China, Cyprus, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Spain and Turkey. Our focus topic was ‘migration & displacement’.
Day 1 – Welcoming
After the arrival and the official welcoming, the participants introduced themselves to their roommates. They were divided in the six ‘color groups’ and then took part in the ‚House Rallye‘ to get to know their home for the upcoming two weeks. In the evening everyone celebrated at the welcoming party. For participants and team alike it’s always an exciting day, where we all meet people we know from previous years and also new faces.
Day 2 – Dachau
In the morning, every color group went on the ‘City Rallye’ and explored the Old Town of Da-chau in a competition. Following lunch, the teamers prepared the participants for the visit of the former concentration camp Dachau. The day ended with a lot of fun during the Pub Quiz.
Day 3 – Memorial Site Dachau
The participants walked to the concentration camp memorial site and experienced the historical place they already heard so much about. Together with their guides they learned about the history of the camp, different groups of prisoners, the development of the camp system and memorial culture since World War II. Back in the Max Mannheimer Haus every-one met in their color group to discuss the visit with each other and the teamers. In the evening, the first meeting with musicians, dancers and singers took place to plan the stage program for the IYM-Festival or took the time to reflect their day together.
Day 4 – Munich
On the fourth day, the whole group went to Munich. In three smaller groups teamers and participants took part in guided tours through the synagogue Ohel Jakob, the Sudetendeutsche Museum and about Munich in National Socialism. Afterwards, everyone enjoyed spare time exploring the city by themselves. In the evening, they met in a traditional beer garden.
Days 5+6 – Workshops
During the two following days everyone took part in our workshops:
- Youth and community during the Warsaw Ghetto uprising
- National Socialism and Psychology
- Remembering the Holocaust in the digital age
- NSDAP and its path to power
- Propaganda in the nazi era
- Forgotten and denied – the fight for recognition and remembrance after 1945
- Truth or Trap? How to detect fake news
- Migration and displacement
On Wednesday evening we all met in the garden and had a camp fire, the next evening there was a movie screening of ‘Human Flow’ about migration worldwide.
Day 7 – Memorial Site Kaufering and Landsberg
We visited the ‘European Holocaust Memorial’ in Kaufering to learn about the history of this former subcamp of the concentration camp Dachau, the people who were imprisoned there and the conditions they had to endure. The group was joined by eyewitness Tova Friedmann who spent parts of her childhood in the DP-Camp Landsberg, the town near Kaufering. Back at the hostel she talked about her experiences there before the color groups met for the mid evaluation.
Day 8 – IYM-Festival
The day started with the preparations for the eyewitnesscafé on Sunday followed by the preparations of decoration, technical equipment and last rehearsals of the performances for the festival. Participants, team and guests enjoyed the performances, the barbecue and the international buffett with sweets and snacks, they brought to Dachau. They had the chance to learn more about local and international partner organizations of IYM Dachau, print t-shirts or take fotos at the foto station together.
Day 9 – Eyewitness café
One of the highlights for every IYM Dachau is the eyewitness café. We were very thankful that Ernst Grube, David Sivor and Tova Friedmann joined us to talk about their personal memories and experiences. Like in the past years, the team recorded the talks to preserve those valuable testimonies for the future. The evening ended with a lot of fun during Karaoke.
Day 10 – Eyewitness talks and Partner Workshops
On Monday the participants had another opportunity to listen to Tova Friedmann and David Sivor telling their stories. In the afternoon participants took part in workshops from some of our partner organizations:
- Concentration Camp Memorial Site Dachau
- Hamahanot Haolim Youth Movement, Israel
- International Youth Meeting Center Oswiecim, Poland
- Max Mannheimer Study Center Dachau
The day ended with our ‘Creative evening’ with different offers for the participants.
Day 11 – Places of Remembrance and theater
In the morning, the participants split up in different groups to learn about important historical places connected to the history of the concentration camp Dachau. One group visited the massgraves on the ‘Leitenberg’ where prisoners of the concentration camp were buried. Another group followed the ‘path of remembrance’ in Markt Indersdorf to explore the information about a DP-camp for Jewish children that was set up there after the end of World War II. The third place was the former SS-shooting range in Hebertshausen near Dachau and the last group got to know the story around the so called ‘herbal garden’ and the ‘plantation’ better. The day ended with the documentary play ‘Climate Monologues’ which was created by director Michael Ruf who also was an IYM-teamer in his youth.
Day 12 – Focus topic day ‚Migration & Displacement‘
The group made a trip to Wolfratshausen in the south of Munich to learn about Waldram/Föhrenwald, a village where forced laborers lived during the second world war. Then it became a Jewish DP-Camp before it turned into a refugee camp of Germans from Eastern Europe. They had several tours in the museum and the village to learn about the people who lived there during the different phases. In the evening the group ‘d’Ampertaler’ from Dachau came to the Max Mannheimer House to show and teach the participants traditional Bavarian dances, which they enjoyed very much like every year.
Day 13 – Trip to Garmisch-Partenkirchen
On our last day we went Garmisch-Partenkirchen to enjoy nature while hiking or swimming and enjoying the nice weather after almost two weeks of rain. Finally, after dinner, everyone joined for the last time to celebrate at the ‘Farewell Party’ with different performances of participants and teamers.
Day 14 – Farewell
Like every year, after two very intense weeks, it was hard to say goodbye to each other. We hope to meet you all again.
Thank you!
IYM Dachau is only possible because of many people supporting it. We thank our participants for taking part in our program, for sharing your thoughts and perspectives and for making this year’s IYM Dachau so special. We also thank all our partners and supporters who enable us year after year to organize such an amazing event! For next year we hope again for many engaged and motivated young people to join us. Our focus topic will be ‘Solidarity & Activism. You can apply here: https://www.iym-dachau.com/participate.