| Dear Readers, |
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Our work in the context of the Education Agenda NS-Injustice commenced with one certainty in 2021: Without the generation of survivors and with increasing remoteness in terms of time, knowledge of National Socialist history and the Holocaust tends to wane. The process of critical examination and historical-political educational work relating to National Socialist injustice will therefore depend on new forms of conveyance in the future.
The results of our recently published MEMO Youth Study now make it clear: Young people are aware of these challenges. They are interested in National Socialist history and see its points of reference to current crises. And most importantly, 76% of those surveyed are convinced that there is no end to their perception and conviction. Many of them want to take advantage of educational offers relating to National Socialist history – learn new factual knowledge, visit historical places and understand connections between the past and the present.
In the culture of remembrance and historical-political education, these findings result in clear responsibilities and potential for action, which we as the EVZ Foundation and with the projects of the Education Agenda NS-Injustice dedicate ourselves to: They address and activate the life worlds of young people with creative and digital formats, continuously involving them, and thus meeting their desire to learn and understand. This issue of the newsletter also shows this: Several projects are currently looking for participants, and in an interview, young actors from the Münchner Kammerspiele talk about theater as a space for experience.
To this end: Feel free to stay in touch and carry on engaging with us.
Dr. Andrea Despot
CEO of the EVZ Foundation |
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PARTICIPANTS WANTED |
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Our projects need you! |
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The projects of the Education Agenda NS-Injustice intentionally rely on participatory approaches which involve different groups of people and thereby strengthen civic commitment. Three funded initiatives are now looking for participants:
In the project "trotzdem da!" of the Sandbostel Camp Memorial, a traveling exhibition is being set up which tells life stories of children from "forbidden relationships" between Germans and prisoners of war or forced laborers stigmatized as "foreign". This requires contact with people who were affected or their relatives, as well as references and sources from people without own family connections.
The project "Kulturretter:innen – wie widerstehen?" of Kooperative Berlin aims to address precisely this: People who rescued culture from National Socialist persecution are sought for an exhibition. Knowledge of cultural items from that time can also contribute to the project – for example recipes, traditions or clothes.
Participation is also welcome in the project of the Memorial Sites Gestapokeller and Augustaschacht: Anyone interested in the topics of sports and history may take part. |
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Contact the projects now  |
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| AROLSEN ARCHIVES |
#LastSeen goes online |
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| Between 1938 and 1945, the National Socialists deported hundreds of thousands of Jews, Roma and Sinti from the German Reich. Despite the mass deportations, only a few pictures have been preserved. Following an intensive research period, the project has now collected known and forgotten images: On March 7, #LastSeen will present the digital image atlas and an interactive game in an online event. |
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| Join the event |
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NEW FUNDING PROGRAM |
| Holocaust Education |
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| Antisemitic attacks have increased in Germany and across the world in recent years. At the same time, knowledge of the Holocaust is waning drastically, as studies show. In view of these challenges, the "Holocaust Education" funding program, supported by the Jewish Claims Conference, the BMF as well as the EVZ Foundation, has been launched. It includes projects carried out by internationally committed organizations around the world. These projects are dedicated to Holocaust Education, i.e. teaching and learning about the Holocaust. Starting in May, we will be reporting on projects, players and experiences from this program in a separate section in this Newsletter. |
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| Find out more |
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BERLINER FESTSPIELE NATIONAL COMPETITION |
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Two Education Agenda Projects Nominated for Theatertreffen der Jugend |
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| The productions "stolpern" by Schaubühne Berlin and "Unter uns. Unsichtbar?" by the Junges Schauspiel Frankfurt demonstrate how artistic approaches to remembering National Socialist injustice can succeed. They have now been shortlisted with their plays for Theatertreffen der Jugend of the Berliner Festspiele for this reason! |
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| Find out more about the nominations |
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| THEATER KAMPNAGEL |
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| Augmented Reality App & Meeting for Hamburg's Urban Community |
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As the second-largest production house of its kind in Europe, the Kampnagel Theater in Hamburg represents contemporary performance, dance and theater. So far, there is little evidence of the site's past during the National Socialist era: In 1934, the crane manufacturer Nagel & Kaemp became "Kampnagel AG", which was then converted into an armaments factory from 1939 to 1945 – with more than 1,000 forced laborers accommodated in six company-owned camps. Resistance was organized in company underground groups and acts of sabotage were carried out.
The cultural institution now wants to take on this history in its self-image as a historical place: Digital tools are used to create a prototype which can later serve other cultural institutions as a directional marker for a critical examination of their own locational history. An augmented reality app for smartphones is planned; this will use exemplary biographies of forced laborers and facts about the resistance to bring life to narrative strands and images at the location. The critical factor: With its expertise acquired in the pandemic, the theater develops the application itself.
From the very beginning, the research process is accompanied by an exchange with the urban community: Over the next two seasons, meetings open to the public will take place every two months; this is where the project team will present the current state of knowledge and invite the public to search for traces together – with space for suggestions, questions and networking. Young people in Hamburg in particular are being asked to take part in the process of coming to terms with the past. |
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| Find out more about the project |
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| For adolescents and young adults, National Socialism and World War II are central points of reference in Germany's culture of remembrance. This is the result of the MEMO Youth Study funded by the EVZ Foundation and conducted by the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence (IKG) at Bielefeld University. 63% of young adults, but only 53% on average across all the age groups, say they have dealt intensively with National Socialism. A clear desire for education is emerging at the same time: 62% of the respondents are worried about social cohesion, and 75% would like to learn new factual knowledge about the National Socialist era. |
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| Read the Youth Study now |
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| SAT.1 REGIONAL |
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Compensation Benefits for Former Prisoners of War at Wolfenbüttel Prison |
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| Sat.1 Regional reports on the project "Ewige Zuchthäusler?!" in a three-minute feature on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The interview with André Charon, the son of a former prisoner of war, is about the personal family history and research work which is part of the Wolfenbüttel Prison project. |
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| Read the article |
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| TAZ |
A Place of Jubilation and Injustice |
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| In a detailed article, the taz writes about the joint project "Von einem Ort des Jubels zu einem Ort des Unrechts. NS-Zwangsarbeitslager auf Sportplätzen" [From a Place of Jubilation to a Place of Injustice – Forced Labor Camps on Football Pitches and Sports Fields] of the Memorial Sites Gestapokeller and Augustaschacht. Until now, the history of KME's plant site in the 50-hectare area in Osnabrück has been barely visible, they say: "There is nothing about people who had to line up here for roll calls, died from contaminated food." This is now changing with the multi-year research and educational project. |
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| To the article |
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| NETWORK OF EUROPEAN RESTITUTION COMMITTEES |
Law without Justice: A Multidisciplinary Research Project |
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| The association Network of European Restitution Committees on Nazi-looted Art reports in its January newsletter about the project "Law without Justice" of the European University Viadrina: "Based on the understanding that any debate on restitution practice since the Washington Conference of 1998 can only be productive if it is able to draw on reliable research findings, the project takes on the task of clarifying the fundamental terminology of the guidelines in a historically informed manner." |
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| Read the newsletter article on page 12 and 13 |
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| SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG |
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| Kammerspiele: Time Capsule Travelers |
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| In their review of the play "TIME BUSTERS", Süddeutsche Zeitung says: "Accompanied by theater educator Elke Bauer, young people developed a performance in an extensive workshop process which questions our culture of remembrance and extends our understanding of history." |
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| To the SZ article |
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The actors Marko Milun Brkic (15), Nikola Wiktoria Alexandra Bruder (16) and Jinan Jaballah (15), from the play TIME BUSTERS at the Munich Kammerspiele |
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Marko, Nikola and Jinan, do you think it is important that we in Germany engage in a critical examination of National Socialist history? How do you prefer to do that: Theater, movies and series, books...
Marko: I think it is important to make use of a lot of methods but some people will never understand – no matter how many times you tell them. For example, they'll never understand that you should just live together no matter what your religion, culture or background. Theater is a particularly good medium because it goes deep into the subject matter and pays a great deal of attention to detail. Film, I think, is almost better because it's more popular. But books are sometimes good because they explain more and take more time to process the content.
Nikola: All methods are good, as long as they are told correctly. Films only tell selected things. Books also hide a lot. At school, you don't even learn what the National Socialists actually did. They don't go into any depth. The interesting thing about history classes is what's left out. You have to tell the whole truth; people shouldn't hide anything. People need to know everything that happened.
Jinan: All possible media should talk about the era. Our democracy is very persistent. That is why we should use all means at our disposal to continue being persistent. It's important to make use of a variety of media because then, even if you're still young, you can make up your own mind about the story and not be told what to think by adults around you. I'm not quite sure, but with films and series today you also have a wider reach. I don't think books are a good medium. I don't like writing and reading much. With other means, you have more images in your mind – I'm then more able to empathize, but that's different for each person. |
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| To the Interview |
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MARCH 14, BERLIN |
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Klassenzimmer with Quang Paasch |
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| Where do you really come from? – this is the overarching question which Vanessa Vu, together with guests, deals with in her "Klassenzimmer" at the Schaubühne in Berlin. In the March edition, the journalist talks to the activist and TikToker Quang Paasch who grew up in East Berlin as the son of two former Vietnamese contract workers; they discuss Generation Z's new class consciousness. |
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| Secure your tickets |
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MARCH 14 & 15, DIGITAL |
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Online Conference on the Launch of #LastSeen |
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| The #LastSeen image atlas and an online game will be released in March: In this conference, the new offerings will be presented, possible uses tested, and more questions about digital history will be discussed. Register at lastseen@arolsen-archives.org. |
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| To the program |
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| 17. MÄRZ, LEIPZIG |
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Is it all "Reconciliation Theater"? Artistic Approaches in Visual Memory Work |
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| Some people criticize the German culture of remembrance for being ritualized and rigid; in the current polemical paper "Versöhnungstheater", for example, the author Max Czollek subjects it to a detailed analysis. How do theater projects of the Education Agenda NS-Injustice create a living and empathic culture of remembrance? We discuss this and more at Theater der Jungen Welt Leipzig. |
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| Mehr Informationen |
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APRIL 28, HAMBURG |
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Forced Labor and Resistance: Info and Exchange Meetings |
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| The kick-off meeting for the project "Forced Labor and Resistance" is aimed at Hamburg's urban community The research staff at the Kampnagel Theater, Sophia Hussain and Simone Rozalija Thiele, invite you to join them on a search for traces against the background of the current project results. The meeting will take place every two months over the next two seasons. |
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| Find out more |
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EDITION 04/2023 |
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Our next edition will come out at the beginning of April! |
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| International Roma Day, the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising – April has many important dates and topics for the work of the EVZ Foundation. Look forward to the new edition coming out early next month! |
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| All editions at a glance |
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Stiftung Erinnerung,
Verantwortung und Zukunft
Friedrichstraße 200
10117 Berlin, Germany
T +49 (30) 25 92 97-0
F +49 (30) 25 92 97-11
Website |
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Responsible:
Dr. Andrea Despot
Editorial:
Hanna Komornitzyk, Katrin Kowark, Sophie Ziegler
Image Credits:
Wojciech Wojtkielewicz, Gianmarco Bresadola, Felix Grünschloss, Aileen Pinkert, Gabriela Neeb |
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The editorial team welcomes your opinion on the newsletter and will be happy to answer any questions. We also help with any issues you might encounter: newsletter@stiftung-evz.de
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| © Stiftung Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft, 2023 |
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