Erasmus+ Programme / DST in Madrid
Politics Club participated in an Erasmus+ project named “Totalitarianism & Democracy” with three other schools from Germany, Romania and Spain last week in Madrid.
On the first day the Erasmus team played an interactive game aiming at locating specific historical places in the city of Madrid in order to get familiar with the history behind Spain’s dictator Francisco Franco and the remaining traces of him in the city. During the second day the team visited “San Lorenzo” monastery which used to be the place where the royal family lived. Royal tombs can still be found there until this day. Then they visited the “Valley of the Fallen”, an enormous monument built by Franco to honor the deaths of the civil war. Franco and Jose Antonio (former leader of the fascist party) were both buried there, but Franco was exhumed and buried at another place only three months ago.
The following two days all the participating students worked in international groups of 4-5 people on the topic “traces of franquism in Madrid”.
The students could choose in which way to present the topic:
First option: to create a documentary film
Second option: to write a blog
Third option: to present the topic in a creative way ( for example a short story)
On the last day three eyewitnesses from Franco’s regime came and talked to the students about their personal experiences and answered questions. After that a fruitful debate took place between all the members of the project regarding the results.