10th edition of MCP magazine and multicultural Parkstad

We are proud that our Central and Eastern Europe Center has been part of the celebration of the 10th edition of the unique MCP magazine prepared by the Broekland College and that our Central and Eastern Europe Center has been officially welcomed in the welcome speech by the director of the school Peter Schut.

Broekland College from Heerlen celebrated on September 21 the 10th edition of their unique magazine: MCP ( Multi Culti Positivo) devoted to multi-culturalism.

At the Broekland College students participate in various international projects in which their learn about multi-culturalism, cultural awareness and social involvement. They have visited for example Poland, Surinam and Indonesia so far.

During the celebration the governor of Limburg Theo Bovens was awarded the special compilation of all 10 editions of this magazine. Also the president of the LVO school foundation Andre Postema and the adelman of the municipality of Heerlen Peter van Zutphen received this special compilation from the hands of the director of the Broekland College Peter Schut.

A sculpture created by students symbolizing their various international projects was unveiled during the ceremony by the coordinators of international projects Ine Schiffelers, Erik Molnar as well as by Peter Schut and Peter van Zutphen.

The guests could admire a rich artistic programme consisting of among others performance of Indonesian students from Java.

This unique magazine has been supported from the beginning by the Municipality of Heerlen. Peter van Zutphen stated: underground, in the mines all people were black, they were all the same regardless where they came from.

History of Heerlen is the history of all international people who came here to work in the mines for years. The society of Limburg and especially of Parkstad is based on multicultural past.

Students of Broekland College supported the Memorial Jewish Transports to Cosel Foundation (‘Stichting Gedenkteken Jodentransporten Cosel’), we are a proud advisor of by creating special memory plaques which were unveiled at a memorial for deported Jews in Cosel (now part of the Polish town of Kedzierzyn-Kozle) in Upper-Silesiain in September 2016.

The monument is an initiative of historian Herman van Rens, his wife Annelies from Beek and their Memorial Jewish Transports to Cosel Foundation (‘Stichting Gedenkteken Jodentransporten Cosel’). Herman van Rens, Annelies van Rens and Emeritus Prof. Dr.-Ing. Leon Kaufmann (TU Eindhoven), son of a Limburg Cosel survivor were also present at this special event. During this day the fragments of the documentary Monument for the Last Journey were shown.

Historian Herman van Rens and his wife Annelies have discovered that between August 28 and December 10 1942 , 39 Nazi trains with Jews from the camps Drancy and Pithiviers (France), Westerbork (the Netherlands) and Malines (Belgium) on their way to Auschwitz arrived at the station of Cosel in Poland. SS-Oberführer Albrecht Schmelt, Heinrich Himmler’s ‘Special Commissioner for the Utilisation of Foreign Labour in Eastern Upper Silesia’ was in charge of taking Jewish males aged 15 to 50 off these deportation trains and taken to labor camps. About 9,000 men and boys were separated from their families. Women and children were sent to gas chambers in Auschwitz.

Many of the men and boys perished from 1942 to 1944 in forced labour camps of Organisation Schmelt; many others from 1944 to 1945 in concentration camps and during death marches. Between 700 and 900 of around 9,000 men selected in Cosel survived the war.

Text and photos: Communications-Unlimited.nl

Welcome speech by the director of the Broekland College Peter Schut