The History Club’s research into the relocation of Baden farming families to the Sundgau region of Alsace during the war found creative expression on 8 November. Guided by Sandra Butsch, the students created storyboards depicting two biographies from the nearby village of Unteribental. Like several families from the Dreisamtal, the Ketterer family was compelled to manage an abandoned farm in Moernach to supply the Wehrmacht. These properties had been vacated either because their owners fled the Nazi regime—especially after conscription was introduced for Alsatian men—or were forcibly interned in German camps.

Claudius Heitz, the teacher leading the History Club, explains: “The narratives on both sides of the Rhine are told similarly, up until the end of the Nazi regime. Germans recount leaving everything ‘as though it were their own,’ while the French returned to find theft, looting, and devastation. This discrepancy may stem from the ‘time gap’ between the Germans’ withdrawal and the French owners’ return. We don’t know for certain. It is undoubtedly a historical gap that remains difficult to close.”

During the workshop, students shared how profoundly they were moved by the unexpected reunion of two eyewitnesses, which left a lasting emotional impression. The diligent research undertaken by these secondary school students into this previously unexplored topic drew considerable attention during a large gathering with Alsatian guests in Buchenbach. Between 1942 and 1944, Baden resident Bernhart Ketterer and Alsatian André Metzger, both children at the time, attended the school in Moernach together. After the Ketterer family was forced to return to the Dreisamtal, the two friends lost touch and had not seen one another since.

By incorporating contemporary objects, contexts, and questions into their stories, the students were able to build a bridge between the past and the present. Sandra Butsch’s approach allows personal interpretations of history to coexist alongside the “official” historical narrative.