Dear Readers, |
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On May 3, World Press Freedom Day will draw attention to the threatening situation of journalists worldwide: There is increasing frequency of intimidation, persecution, imprisonment and even murder.
The day will also serve as a reminder of the significance of independent reporting as the cornerstone of our democracy. History teaches us what the systematic restriction of press freedom by a totalitarian regime can lead to: The National Socialists abolished press freedom in 1933 with the “Schriftleitergesetz” ("Editors' Law") as an instrument of control, so that their ideology could take center stage in reporting from then on. Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of "Public Enlightenment and Propaganda", brought the press, radio and film into line. 1,300 predominantly Jewish journalists lost their jobs and liberal newspapers had to cease publication.
A process of repression and extermination of unparalleled proportions began, based on ideological hatred against Jews. Antisemitism now still threatens the safety of the Jewish population in both the analog and digital space, as well as the basic principles of democracy in the form of press freedom. One of the newly launched projects of the Education Agenda NS-Injustice is dedicated to combating this threat: "Under pressure? Media and Antisemitism under National Socialism & Today" brings together media professionals and examines the role and responsibility of the press and journalists in the dissemination of antisemitic narratives before, during and after the National Socialist era. At a time when disinformation is on the rise, critical reporting is an essential element of journalism, according to a Study by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). In our "3 Questions for..." section, Vika Biran from the n-ost initiative gives an insight into the newly launched project "History Unit: Reframing Queer Narratives in Media". She talks to us about the urgency of combating disinformation and censorship against LGBTIQ people and about the biggest current challenges in the work of journalists and activists in Belarus, Poland, Russia as well as Ukraine. Read more about the impact of the Russian war of aggression on the situation of journalists on the ground in our "No Place for Hate" section. Stay critical, be informed and get involved with us. Dr. Andrea Despot Chief Executive Officer of the EVZ Foundation |
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| MAI 28, 13:45-14:45, FISHBOWL DIScUSSION |
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| Education Agenda at re:publica 24 |
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| re:publica 24 will take place from May 27 to 29 at STATION Berlin – EVZ Foundation will be there with the Education Agenda NS-Injustice! Listen to our talk "Keeping memories alive when historical eyewitnesses disappear: Digital approaches to historical-political education" with experts from our funded digital projects. Together we will talk about the opportunities and challenges associated with digital approaches to historical-political education. |
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WOLFENBÜTTEL Prison Memorial
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Conference: The process of reparations for National Socialist injustice and the consequences
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On May 27, the memorial site of the former Wolfenbüttel prison will be inviting visitors as part of the Education Agenda project "Ewige Zuchthäusler?! Entschädigung für Justizverurteilte und die individuellen sowie gesellschaftlichen Auswirkungen“ (Eternal convicts?! Compensation Benefits for Convicts as well as the Individual and Societal Impacts") to a one-day workshop in Berlin. The focus will be on questions about the historical and legal process of reparations and compensation for National Socialist crimes from 1945 to the present day. Among other things, impulse contributions are planned from experts from the fields of research, education, museums and memorial sites.
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To the conference program 
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FOUNDATION DIGITAL GAMES CULTURE
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Relaunch of the "Games and Remembrance Culture" database
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"Voices of the Forgotten Holocaust Museum" in "Fortnite", "Beholder 3" or "Friedrich Ebert - The Road to Democracy" - how much didactic potential do these games have? The project "Let's Remember! Remembrance Culture with Games on Site" has revised the evaluation structure of the "Games and Remembrance Culture" database. The new version provides more guidance at the interface of games, culture of remembrance and history. Interlinked with new learning materials, the database is intended to serve as a long-term point of contact for the further training of specialists and teachers.
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To the Database
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| COLOGNE SOCIETY FOR CHRISTIAN-JEWISH COOPERATION |
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| Under pressure? Media and Antisemitism in National Socialism & Today |
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Henri Nannen, founder of Stern magazine, or Hans Abich, the inventor of Tagesthemen (German daily news program) - all of them have a National Socialist background that is still far from being fully addressed. However, the press and journalists played a decisive role in the spread of antisemitic images and narratives, whether before, during or after the National Socialist era. Were they under pressure, or did they exert pressure? Has the National Socialist past of many media professionals been dealt with critically enough? What lessons can we learn from history in order to decisively counter current manifestations of antisemitism today?
Based on the role of the press in the National Socialist state, a recently launched Education Agenda NS-Injustice project is dedicated to today's challenges in dealing with antisemitism in the media.
In four formats - a traveling exhibition, a digital learning tool, workshops and a symposium - media professionals engage in a critical examination of antisemitism and the continuity of antisemitic images in order to reflect on their own responsibility for democracy and the rule of law against the background of the role their profession had during the National Socialist era and also in order to strengthen freedom of the press. |
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| Find out more about the project |
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| Exhibition tip: The multimedia exhibition shows stories of culture rescuers from four generations. They tell us about the experiences of people who were persecuted under National Socialism, rescued culture and rendered active resistance. The exhibition opened in Leipzig on March 7 and will move on to the NS-Documentation Center of the City of Cologne from April 26 to August 11. |
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| More about the exhibition venues |
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11, 503, 18 - these apparently harmless numbers conceal tragic fates. The Reporters Without Borders press freedom barometer has already reported 11 journalists killed in 2024. 503 journalists and 18 media professionals are currently in custody across the world. Hatred, repression and terror against journalists do not receive the attention they so urgently need: The question of how freely media professionals can work, research and publish is a seismographic indicator of the threats to democracy and to the rule of law in a country.
Among the target countries of the EVZ Foundation, Russia - predictably - occupies one of the lowest places in the NGO's press freedom ranking. "Since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, almost all independent media have been banned, blocked and categorized as so-called foreign agents." And Ukraine itself ranks last in the world when it comes to the safety of journalists - another direct consequence of the Russian attack.
There is, however, one encouraging point: Overall, press freedom has improved in the invaded country - because it has succeeded in reducing disinformation.
The vast majority of the 103 reported attacks on journalists in Germany in 2022 were motivated by conspiracy ideology, antisemitism and far-right extremism. This makes it all the more important that individual Education Agenda NS-Injustice projects now also focus on the media world - and thus on very different perspectives such as collaboration and continuities of persecution.
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| Tagesspiegel+ |
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An interview with Benjamin Lahusen: Why can't the restitution of art stolen by the National Socialists be accelerated? |
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The National Socialists stole approximately 600,000 works of art from Jews or forced them to sell them far below their real value:
Benjamin Lahusen, Head of the project "Law without Law" at the European University Viadrina at Frankfurt/Oder, explains in an interview that the restitution of art stolen by the National Socialists is a lengthy process due to the lack of legal provision and the complex evidence. By way of example, he describes the frustrating process for the heirs of the art object "The Boxwood Garden" by Emil Nolde. Lahusen also points to a certain lack of willingness to cooperate as well as the persistence of antisemitic resentment, which further delays decisions about restitution and reveals reluctant attitudes towards coming to terms with the National Socialist past. |
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| To the interview |
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| Jüdische Allgemeine |
| More than 4,000 lost Jewish books from Berlin found in Prague |
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| Four thousand books that once belonged to the Berlin Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (Higher Institute for Jewish Studies) and were thought to have been lost turned up in the library of the Jewish Museum in Prague. With this discovery, the museum is linking in with the "Library of Lost Books" Education Agenda project of the Leo Baeck Institutes in Jerusalem and London, which calls on people to search for lost documents. The aim is to prepare the books for virtual access and to make them accessible to the public. |
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| Go to the article |
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| RUDOLPHINA UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA |
| Remapping Refugee Stories: The escape stories that were not told |
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| The story of Jewish trans woman Charlotte Charlaque's escape from the National Socialists remained hidden for a long time: "The best-known escape stories from the time of the Holocaust come from intellectuals," says literary scholar Paula Wojcik. The Education Agenda project "Remapping Refugee Stories" collects and analyzes previously unnoticed biographies of people from persecuted groups and makes them available to the public. Wojcik makes it clear that every escape story is individual and rarely follows a pattern. Moreover, there are hardly any survivors left who can tell their stories themselves - they must now be kept alive for younger generations in other ways. |
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| Read the full article |
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A few years ago, Andreas Assael, himself the son of a Holocaust survivor, found an album containing photographs of a work assignment on a large construction site at Karya. He begins his research and provides the first foundations for the project "Deadly forced labor in Karya. German Occupation and the Holocaust in Greece" of the Nazi Forced Labor Documentation Centre. In late summer 2024, a media exhibition will open in Berlin and Athens dedicated to the fates of the people and the history of forced labor at the time of the German occupation. |
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| Vika Biran, Projekt Manager of „History Unit: Framing Queer Narratives in Media“, n-ost |
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Vika Biran, your project addresses the responsibility of the media in the context of the persecution of queer people under National Socialism and in the present day: How do you go about (preventively) combating the dissemination of queer-hostile narratives in the media in your work?
Propaganda and violence against LGBTIQ+ people are on the rise, and the media plays a key role in the spread of homophobic and transphobic narratives. "History Unit: Reframing Queer Narratives in Media" addresses this responsibility in the context of the persecution of queer people under National Socialism, but also in today's political reality. Media create discourse: The way a topic is discussed in the media has a direct influence on how this topic is then viewed by society.
Unfortunately, the persecution of homosexual and transsexual people under National Socialism has not been adequately addressed in the media in Eastern Europe. Many people are still unaware that this group of victims was murdered, persecuted and discriminated against in concentration camps, just like Jews, Sinti and Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and others.
Unfortunately, queerphobic portrayals are still found in the media today. Until recently, the ruling conservative party in Poland did not consider it necessary to support the rights of LGBTQ+ people and women. There were even so-called "LGBT-free" zones - it's hard to believe that we're not talking about events from 80 years ago, but from just five years ago. |
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| Read the full interview |
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| MAY 7, 2 PM, RUPPIN-BRANDENBURG University Hospital, NEURUPPIN |
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| Art comes to school: Commemoration of NS "euthanasia" in Neuruppin |
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| At five former National Socialist "intermediate institutions", now hospitals or medical and care facilities, school students work together with artists in a Zeitbild Foundation project to explore the National Socialist crimes that took place there in artistic form. Together with the artist duo Boris Eldagsen and Levin Handschuh, school students of the Allee Gymnasium Hamburg developed a work of art that will commemorate the NS "euthanasia" crimes at the Ruppin-Brandenburg University Hospital. |
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| More Info about the event |
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MAY 22, 4 PM, DIGITAL
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EVZ Conversations! Antisemitism at European Universities over the Course of Time
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Antisemitism has not just been a problem for society as a whole since October 7, 2023. However, the massive increase in antisemitic crimes in Europe speaks for itself. There are sometimes violent incidents at universities in particular. Jewish students don't feel safe and complain about a lack of empathy and a sense of being left alone. How are European universities addressing this situation? A moderated discussion between the German-Israeli historian Dan Diner and Hanna Veiler, President of the German Union of Jewish Students (JSUD).
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Join the Livestream
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JUNE 1 TO 6, BERLIN
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TIME BUSTERS at the 2024 Youth Theater Meeting 2024
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The play by the Munich Kammerspiele was created in a remembrance workshop with young people. It questions our culture of remembrance and expands our understanding of history. This is what you see: A school class in the year 2433 discovers a time capsule containing records of young people in 2023 dealing with their own present and recent past. The explorers look at the stories of a violent past, which they know from history books but which do not appear in the family narratives.
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Join the event
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| Newsletter Edition 06/2024 |
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| Our next edition will appear at the beginning of June! |
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| In the June issue of our newsletter, we take a look at the EVZ Conversations! episode "Anti-Semitism at European Universities over the Course of Time". We will also report on the 20th anniversary of the memorial in Bełżec. Stay tuned! |
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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:
Jana Bültge, Sonja Folsche, Sarah Keller, Katrin Kowark, Thomas Stein, Sophie Ziegler
Image Credits:
Alina Simmelbauer, Dörthe Boxberg, Philipp Baumgarten, Alexandra Kononchenko |
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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, 2024 |
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