Dear readers,

#WatchOutHstry - illuminating empty spaces, telling unheard stories, highlighting connections: Under this motto in 2023 we will be introducing you to previously lesser-known events, places and victim biographies relating to the crimes of the National Socialists from our projects and engagements.

As MEMO V revealed, Ukraine and Belarus - as well as many other Eastern and Southeastern European countries in general - hardly play a role in Germans' memories of World War II. These gaps in the culture of memory are seen in many debates surrounding Russia's war of aggression, which Ukraine has been subjected to for almost a year now - and the people of Crimea and eastern Ukraine for far longer.

"Germany's self-perception as the 'master of memory' is at odds with a large number of gaps in our knowledge about the war of robbery and enslavement in the East," historians Katja Makhotina and Franziska Davies wrote last week in the Tagesspiegel. Together with #WatchOutHstry we will investigate this finding and reveal the history(s) of places, people and events. There are territorial, historic, political and personal interdependencies that do not end at national borders: Consequently, we will be focusing on Belarus, Ukraine and Poland - listening to historical eyewitnesses and discussing the process of forgetting in the present time with our partners in these countries.

Do you have ideas, suggestions or requests for #WatchOutHstry?
Write to us: kommunikation@stiftung-evz.de

Stay in touch, be informed and engage with us.

Dr. Andrea Despot
CEO of the EVZ Foundation

Save the Date: First calls from the EVZ Foundation this year! For example, in the cluster Education drives the future: With "[re]create digital history" the YOUNG PEOPLE remember program gives a reminder to sponsors of international historical-political education and players in the civic tech industry from Germany, Europe and Israel. Would you like to develop forward-looking concepts that make historical sites readily accessible and irrespective of location? Do you open up places of remembrance and biographies for international youth exchange in a virtual environment? You can shape culture of remembrance actively and digitally with our project funding!

The German Wehrmacht established the former prisoner of war camp Stalag 352 on the outskirts of Minsk. For a long time, the history of the "Stammlager" and the victims were suppressed from the historical memory of World War II. Now the Republican Association of Tourism Industry in Belarus has taken on the task of making the forgotten history visible and making silenced voices from the past audible. A multimedia website and audio guide provide a new look into the history of Stalag 352 - recalling German crimes against thousands of Soviet POWs, Jews as well as Italian military internees.

The Frankfurt "meeting place" of the Central Welfare Board of Jews in Germany (ZWST) has become a second home for many survivors of National Socialist persecution. Here, volunteers offer survivors and their families a place for exchange and support as well as cultural and religious services. The artist Aviva Kaminer oversees the studio where visitors can give free rein to their creativity and process their memories with artistic activities. In the protected space of the studio, special works of art are created - they can be visited in the Römerhallen of the City of Frankfurt until February 12.

The MEET UP! microprojects support creative ideas from Germany, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. The EVZ Foundation team developed the concept behind the microprojects in a participatory approach with young experts from the program countries. But can anything substantial be achieved with a microproject? The young fashion designer Mahammad Kekalov has shown how this can work in an impressive way. Kekalov had a vision years ago: People with disabilities should be able to feel comfortable in their own clothes. It also aims at giving them a dignified media presence in an industry that often does not see them. This is why this Azerbaijani founded a fashion brand for people in wheelchairs - "Kekalove Adaptive Fashion".
The label successfully celebrated its premiere last year: Kekalov's team organized fashion shows in the Azerbaijani capital Baku. In the process, many models aged between 7 and 50 with physical disabilities were able to present the collection designed for them. The events provided a space for exchange, self-organization and discussions about participation. The photo shows the brothers Amir and Abbas on the stage at a fashion show.

"Holy Father! Before I take the last step of my young life, which has yet to see even one rosy day, I make so bold as to appeal to Your Holiness for help," begins one of many thousands of letters of supplication from Jews to Pope Pius XII. Their desperation and hope expressed in letters to the Vatican are the starting point for the project "Asking the Pope for Help" of the University of Münster, funded by the EVZ Foundation and other sponsors. On the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Ilse Holzapfel Foundation and the EVZ Foundation organized a reading on the stage of "Fünf Stellvertreter" (Five Substitutes) at the Berliner Ensemble with Iris Berben and Thomas Thieme based on this project.

What is the situation of LGBTIQ self-organizations in Central and Eastern Europe?

In January 2022, ILGA-Europe launched ‘Funding to Meet Changing Realities’, our second Report on the state of LGBTI organisations in Europe and Central Asia, which clearly showed that LGBTI activists are struggling to resource their work amid a number of challenging factors. About three-quarters of LGBTI organisations identified a lack of funding for the activities that are most important to their organisation as a barrier to implementing projects. They often do their most important work without funding.
About one third of LGBTI organisations operate on yearly budgets under 20,000 Euro. That’s approximately 55 Euro per day, all the while engaging in a vast variety of activities to simultaneously serve community needs and advance laws and policies to protect LGBTI people's human rights. On top of this, 85 percent of organisations say that they have been faced with burnout issues. The most common cause of stress and burnout across was not being able to meet the needs of LGBTI people coming in for help and having to respond to external threats from right wing, anti-LGBTI or “anti-gender” groups or individuals.

This year the Bundestag commemorated the National Socialist persecution of queer people for the first time. In this article, the Süddeutsche Zeitung describes the extent to which queer people were systematically persecuted and murdered. In doing so, the article refers to the exhibition "To be seen. Queer Lives 1900 - 1950" by the Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism, showing how diverse the past had been and what had been lost through National Socialist persecution. It is all the more important to make the wounds and scars visible because queer people in Germany are still threatened with violence and discrimination today. The article also tells the story of a long struggle for justice - beyond 1945.

You will receive the next newsletter on the Education Agenda NS-Injustice at the beginning of March: We report on upcoming events for our projects, such as the launch of #LastSeen and a theater education network event in Leipzig. Look out!