3. – 11. Mai 2024
During our trip to Kreisau (Krzyżowa) from May 3rd to May 11th, 13 of our Q1 students took part in the MICC (Model International Criminal Court) program by the Kreisau Initiative. The MICC can be described as a simulation of the International Criminal Court (ICC), in which students from different European countries get together to discuss three historic cases regarding war crimes. We stayed in the Kreisau Estate, which is located in the beautiful Polish countryside. During World War II, the Kreisau Estate was the residence of Hellmuth James von Moltke, who was the founder of the so-called “Kreisauer Kreis”, a German resistance group against the Nazi regime.
About 40 students from four different schools coming from Poland, Greece, and Germany attended the MICC. Everybody was assigned a role on either the legal team or the press/media team. Both teams were led by experienced trainers. The legal team was divided into prosecuters, defenders and judges. The press team was responsible for documenting the process and trials on paper and video, while the legal teams were fighting for justice for the accused.
Before the simulation started, the coaches organized different workshops so we could all get to know each other whilst learning about international law as well as the historical background of our cases. The highlights of the project were the trials, in which the prosecution and defence teams laid out their arguments for the cases and the thoroughly thought out verdicts the judges prepared.
Apart from the simulation we had the chance to meet and befriend other students from different cultural backgrounds. Most nights were spent dancing and singing with the Greek and Polish students. On top of that we enjoyed a lot of free-time and were able to explore the towns of Swidnica (Schweidnitz) and Wroclaw (Breslau).
This amazing week in Poland ended with a day trip to Berlin, where we were able to do sightseeing and spent the last hours on our journey with our peers.
Overall, the trip did not only teach us about the procedures at the ICC and how to apply them to real life, but also brought us many intercultural experiences, that taught us to see the world from a new perspective. It was a life changing experience for which we would all like to thank our teacher Mr. Okel, the Kreisau Initiative and the Erasmus+ Stiftung. We all had an amazing time!
Havin Dinc & Eliana Jäger (Q1)