Action Reconciliation Service For Peace - ARSP

US program director Dr. Monika Moyrer attended the ASF/ARSP annual conference in Berlin, Germany. Around 180 people gathered in workshops, on city walks, and during breaks: How are democracy and social cohesion under attack in Germany and many other countries? How do far-right extremists network across borders? And what responses and ideas does democratic civil society offer to counter this trend and promote an open and united society in a multi-cultural Europe? At the conference Monika Moyrer had a chance meeting with Ella, former ARSP volunteer at Selfhelp Home Chicago and volunteer for many of our summer seminars in Philadelphia. We still hope to see Ella again in Philly this year. We will miss you Ella.

If you ever have been to the National Mall in Washington DC, you noticed the magnificent building which is housing The National Museum of African American History & Culture. The building is looking like a corona which was inspired by the three-tiered crowns used in Yoruban art from West Africa. This building offers 10 floors of exhibition space. Our volunteers tried to explore as much as possible.

ARSP volunteers also had an invitation to visit the Boell Foundation and met Carl Robert, the Director of Communication. Carl told us how the Boell Foundation connects people across the Atlantic, who work on gender equality, climate action and social justice. We are grateful that they opened their doors and helped us better understand the mission of the foundation. Thank you!

In this past week our volunteers met so many wonderful people, encountered interesting stories and topics and once a day they got together to talk and reflect on it. We thank everyone who made this Seminar possible, who took the time to meet us and who came to visit for conversation and pizza.

ARSP has a relationship with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C since 1994 and our current volunteer Victor organized yesterday's visit to the museum and also to meet Peter Gorog, born as Peter Gruenwald in Budapest, 1941. Peter, a Holocaust Survivor, tells our volunteers about his mother Olga and father Arpad in Budapest and their hardships during the 1940’s in Hungary.
His father was conscripted into a forced labor battalion and was declared missing in 1943. After many struggles, imprisonment, lack of food, lost housing and constant fear, his mother and Peter were forced to live in the Budapest ghetto, which was liberated in 1945. Unfortunately, the living conditions and lack of food did not change and Peter lost his grandparents. In 1962 Peter changed his last name to Gorog for fear of antisemitic discrimination in Hungary. Peter defected to the US in 1980. He participated in the design of the first computer made in Hungary. In the US, Peter worked for NASA on different projects like GOES, LANDSAT, Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope. Today, he is a volunteer at the USHMM. Thank you Peter Gorog for sharing your and the story of your family with us.