| Dear Readers, |
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Which stories are written down and told, and which ones remain hidden? In historical-political educational work, we ask ourselves these questions time and again. Exactly 90 years ago, on May 10, 1933, the National Socialist-dominated German student body burned thousands of books. The so-called "Action against the Un-German Spirit" was directed against Jewish and other ostracized authors in approximately twenty German university cities.
The Day of the Free Book in Germany not only reminds us to value the free availability of knowledge and culture. It also shows how historical gaps are created and the danger they entail. The recently launched project „Have You Seen This Book?“ from the Leo Baeck Institute is dedicated to books stolen by the National Socialist regime and takes visitors to their current whereabouts in an interactive exhibition.
Other projects launched at the beginning of this year as part of the Education Agenda NS-Injustice have also rendered gaps visible: with a classroom project on the topic of NS "euthanasia", a graphic novel about eugenics crimes, or - in line with our annual motto #WatchOutHstry – an interactive map highlighting the sites of terror in the territories in the Soviet Union occupied by the National Socialists. All the projects are presented online. The great variety of ways in which past projects have already brought history to life are shown by the diverse results in our info and media library.
In this connection: Stay in touch, inform and engage with us.
Dr. Andrea Despot
CEO of the EVZ Foundation |
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| NS-DOKUMENTATIONSZENTRUM KÖLN |
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| „Sichtbar machen“ on the Shortlist for the DigAMus Award |
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| Every year, the DigAMus Award distinguishes the best digital project ideas of German museums. This year, the project „Sichtbar machen“ of the NS-Documentation Center of the City of Cologne was shortlisted in the category for hybrid offerings together with four other projects. In addition to a multi-layered web portal and historical eyewitness interviews, large projections take place in Cologne's urban space at those locations which played a major role in the life and persecution history of Cologne's Jewish Schönenberg family. |
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Shortlist for the DigAMus Award  |
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| EUROCLIO |
| A New Toolkit for Teaching History |
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| The project "Who were the victims of the National Socialists?" aims to give young people across Europe a deeper understanding of the roots of contemporary discrimination. With a recently published toolkit, school students and their teachers learn step-by-step how to develop a history project in their own environment. |
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| Try out the new learning materials |
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| EVZ FOUNDATION |
| Trainers Wanted for Antisemitism Aware Educational Work! |
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| The project "Informed, courageous, committed!" qualifies employees from selected companies in Germany to address antisemitism in a differentiated and competent way and thus contributes to an antisemitism-sensitive working environment. The project is set up as a blended learning format: Alongside digital self-learning phases, participants go through four workshops. For the implementation of the workshops and for supervision during the self-learning phase, the EVZ Foundation is looking for eight trainers who wish to be involved in the project on a regular basis and throughout Germany. |
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| Current Education Agenda project calls |
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| MOVES |
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| Launch of the Multimedia Project „What remains?“ |
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| The Education Agenda never stands still: The kick-off for „What remains?“ took place at the end of March at the Jugendbildungsstätte Bremen Lidice-Haus: With the goal of "Remembering to (better) shape the future" the Moves gUG project works through the past in a youth-oriented manner, using East and West German family biographies from a variety of social and cultural origins. The presentation of first project results by Dr. Anne Rohrbach from the MOVES project team showed how family interviews with two or three generations can be conducted for this purpose. |
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| Find out more about the project |
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| 80th ANNIVERSARY |
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| Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: Exhibition at the POLIN Museum |
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April 19, 2023 marked the 80th anniversary of the start of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. During a period of four weeks, the insurgents put up armed resistance against the German occupation terror.
In the special exhibition „Around Us a Sea of Fire. The Fate of Jewish Civilians During the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising“, the POLIN Museum in Warsaw tells the stories of civilians at the time of the uprising. During the armed struggle by some, the resistance of others was silent, and yet just as important: They hid in bunkers, sought places of refuge, and thus resisted the deadly deportations.
Their thoughts, fears and as well as their everyday lives in the bunkers are the focus of the exhibition. This is funded by the Claims Conference, the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) and the EVZ Foundation as part of the Holocaust Education funding program. (Image above: Jews are being led to the transshipment point in the Warsaw Ghetto; Copyright: Z. L. Grzywaczewski). |
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| Find out more about the exhibition in the interview with the curator |
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| NAZI FORCED LABOR DOCUMENTATION CENTER |
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| Deadly Forced Labor in Karya. German Occupation and the Holocaust in Greece |
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The Holocaust against the Jewish population in Greece and German war crimes during the occupation of the country have been forgotten in our culture of remembrance. It was only through the discovery of a photo album a few years ago that war crimes in Karya (Greece), became known: In 1943, the German occupiers deported 300 Jewish men from Thessaloniki to use them for forced labor in the construction of the railroad line to Athens.
The photographs provide a record of their forced labor from the perspective of the perpetrators. Researchers believe the survivors were murdered at the end of the construction project. The fates of these people and the place of forced labor have not yet been investigated: This is the starting point for the funded project of the Nazi Forced Labor Documentation Center in cooperation with the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the Interdisciplinary Work Group Conflict Landscapes at Osnabrück University.
Together with students from Germany and Greece, a work group from the Osnabrück University is geo-archaeologically investigating the site for mass graves and traces of forced labor and also developing a 3-D model that renders the crime scene visible. Thanks to the participatory approach, the results of historical eyewitness encounters and workshops with descendants of survivors are included in the project.
In parallel, a multi-perspective traveling exhibition is being developed in Germany and Greece, which will open in 2024 and thereby contribute to a joint critical examination of this aspect of history in Germany and Greece. The fieldwork began in Greece at the end of March: A group of researchers and students searched for traces of forced labor in the vicinity of the Karya railroad station and documented the crime scene. |
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| Reading tip: The project blog reports directly from Greece |
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| Interaction, exchange, reflection – this is how we could summarize the expert discussion „Alles »Versöhnungstheater«?“ for which project sponsors and participants came together on 17 March at the Theater of the Young World Leipzig as part of the „Education in Motion“ series. Against the background of his current polemic paper, in which the author Max Czollek takes a critical look at Germany's culture of remembrance, representatives from the Education Agenda theater projects talked about how artistic approaches can contribute to a sincere, lively and critical remembrance. Our photo of the month presents Mobin Soltani (age 17), Martina Droste (Schauspiel Frankfurt), Luis da Silva (age 17) and Winnie Karnofka (TDJW) in conversation. The two young people were part of the ensemble for the play „Unter uns. unsichtbar“ (In Community) which was developed as part of the project „Fragile Verbindungen“ (Fragile Connections) at the Junges Schauspiel Frankfurt. |
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| Rewatch event online |
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| MDR |
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| Places of Euthanasia in Weimar |
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| The MDR Thüringen Journal reports in an article about the research project „Beredtes Schweigen“ (Eloquent Silence) of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, which endeavors to re-locate a forgotten place in our consciousness, that „People were forcibly sterilized in the former municipal hospital during World War II. Researchers at the University Jena now want to change the fact that this is barely remembered. For them, these are forgotten perpetrator sites where the National Socialists once committed crimes against people.“ |
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| Watch the report |
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| TAZ |
| Under Everybody's Eyes) |
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| The results of the project „#LastSeen“ of the Arolsen Archives are the focus of an article in taz. According to author Klaus Hillenbrand, the virtual image atlas, which brings together images of the deportations from the German Reich between 1938 and 1945 and makes them accessible, shows „no sensations“: „They are evidentiary records. And they are the last images of people before they went to their deaths. They bring people close to an event which, in view of the extinction of the last historical eyewitnesses, is threatened with gradual oblivion – or malicious reinterpretation with the help of falsification.“ |
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| Read the article |
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| RTL |
| Children from Forbidden Relationships |
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| In an interview with RTL Nord, Katharina Sämann, the daughter of a German and a Soviet prisoner of war from Stalag X B Sandbostel, and project staff member, Lucy Debus, talk about „trotzdem da!“ (They're still here!) at the Sandbostel Camp Memorial: „Stories of children like Katharina Sämann, who came into the world despite National Socialist prohibitions, are now being reviewed academically at the Sandbostel Camp Memorial.“ |
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| Watch the interview |
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| Johanna Sokoließ, specialist advisor and head of the project „Informed, courageous, committed! A joint initiative against antisemitism“ |
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The project „Informed, courageous, committed!“ addresses the problem of antisemitism in society as a whole and starts where thousands of people from a wide variety of backgrounds meet every day: the workplace. In what format is the educational offer designed?
The continuing education program „Informed, courageous, committed“ is designed in the form of a blended learning format. That means: Workshops and digital self-learning phases alternate. On the one hand, this has the advantage that participants can organize their time flexibly during the self-study phases and choose from a selection of multimedia learning opportunities. The materials are available to participants on a user-friendly learning platform, the EVZ Academy. The nice thing about this approach is that it allows for both asynchronous and interest-driven learning.
On the other hand, the content developed in the self-study phases can be deepened in workshops, which take place both digitally and in person, applied in practical methods and discussed together. This also ensures the so important exchange amongst people, as well as joint reflection on the situation at one's own workplace. The approach makes it possible to combine the benefits of digital learning and workshops. |
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| Continue reading |
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| MAY 5, AMSTERDAM |
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| Discussion: Yesterday's Crimes, Today's Freedom? |
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| How do younger generations in the Netherlands and Germany remember the crimes committed by the National Socialists during World War II? How can society ensure that the memory of atrocities is kept alive when historical eyewitnesses are no longer here? These and other questions will be discussed in a roundtable discussion at the Goethe Institute in the Netherlands between young people from the Netherlands and experts, including Ralf Possekel from the EVZ Foundation. |
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| Join the event |
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| MAY 13, 16 & 17, MANNHEIM |
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| „Für alle Ewigkeit“: More Performance Dates |
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| Im vergangenen Mai feierte das Jugendtheaterstück „Für alle Ewigkeit“ am Jungen Nationaltheater Mannheim Premiere: Das Projekt erforscht, wie Geschichte entsteht, wer sie erzählt, wie sie politisch eingesetzt wird und was sie mit der Gegenwart zu tun hat. Im Mai folgen nun drei weitere Vorstellungen. |
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| Get tickets now |
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| MAY 14 TO 16, BERLIN |
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| Conference on the project „Who is Walter?“ |
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| The Crossborder Factory's „Who is Walter?“ project looks at the little-known stories of resistance to Nazism and Nazi occupation in Europe. The first conference is currently taking place in Berlin. Planned activities include four panel discussions on the history of the resistance during World War II, with priority for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, France and Germany, as well as a visit to the German Resistance Memorial Center. |
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| Information & registration |
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| SEPTEMBER 12 & 13, BERLIN |
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| Save the Date: Networking and Input Meeting |
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| The networking and input meeting for all currently funded projects of the Education Agenda NS-Injustice will take place again this year. In Berlin, far away from Zoom & Co, project sponsors have the opportunity to meet each other across clusters and to exchange information about their respective projects. |
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| More about the networking meeting |
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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:
Dirk Lukaßen, Yasmin Veljiu, Maciek Jaźwiecki, Tanja Vaitulevich, Alina Simmelbauer, Amélie Losier |
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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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