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Edition 08/2024
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Dear Readers,
Please allow us to introduce Anna to you on our social media channels - a historical eyewitness and survivor of the genocide perpetrated against the Sinti and Roma.
Under the hashtag #WeRememberEveryday we report on this 83-year-old survivor of the National Socialist mass murder on the occasion of the European Holocaust Memorial Day for Sinti and Roma.
"My only remembrance of the war is poverty and fear," Anna told our partner ETP Slovakia - Centre for Sustainable Development. The organization assists 180 survivors of the genocide against the Roma in eastern Slovakia with social, medical and legal support.
80 years ago, SS guards murdered more than 4,000 Sinti and Roma during the liquidation of a sub-camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau - despite their fierce resistance. However, the deprivation of rights and exclusion of Sinti and Roma has continued after 1945. Even today, members of the minorities are still fighting for equal participation and recognition. Survivors of the genocide against the Sinti and Roma, like Anna, are still among the all too often "forgotten victims" of National Socialist persecution.
In this newsletter, we present current funding opportunities for self-organizations and also take a look at the alarming figures on antigypsy incidents from the Melde- und Informationsstelle Antiziganismus (Reporting and Information Unit for Antigypsyism) (MIA).
In our "3 Questions for..." section, you can also read why Elizabeta Jonuz, Professor of Social Work at University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hannover, attests to a "failure of German politics" in view of these figures.
Discover the background and find out how you can work with our partners to show solidarity with those affected by injustice and discrimination!
Dr. Andrea Despot CEO of the EVZ Foundation
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#WATCHOUTHSTRY
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Who were the "Eastern Workers?"
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Find out about the EVZ Academy's new online self-learning program on forced laborers from the former Soviet Union that the EVZ Foundation has developed as part of the annual theme #WatchOutHstry. What were the dimensions of NS forced labor? What did the engineer and former forced laborer Sinaida Bashlai from Kharkiv experience after her deportation by the German authorities? Register now using the code #sinaida for the course, which lasts approximately 1 hour - and deepen your knowledge rapidly with further e-learning modules!
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Register now
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CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
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Strengthening Sinti and Roma in Germany
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How can we strengthen Roma and Sinti self-organizations and equal participation? How can we develop sustainable cooperation, professionalize self-organizations and strengthen regional structures? Together with the Freudenberg Foundation, the EVZ Foundation supports long-term Sinti and Roma self-organization projects in Germany.
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Submit your project ideas now until August 15!
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CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
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[re]act finding memories
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In the "YOUNG PEOPLE remember international" funding program, the EVZ Foundation, together with the Federal Foreign Office, promotes international, historical-political educational work and allows young people to engage in a critical examination of history. The "[re]act finding memories" funding line focuses on bilateral and multilateral youth encounters for 14 to 35-year-olds from Germany, Europe and Israel, as well as specialist exchanges for disseminators. Do you have ideas for innovative educational formats at historical locations?
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Apply now until September 2!
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CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
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Building Structures for Combating Antisemitism
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"The fight against antisemitism is a task for society as a whole," emphasizes Dr. Felix Klein, the Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight against Antisemitism. With the funding program "Building Structures for Combating Antisemitism" the EVZ Foundation is therefore specifically anchoring and strengthening contact persons for the prevention of antisemitism in all places of coexistence: From sport and the work setting to media, culture and civil society. Our program promotes the establishment and further development of action and intervention skills - concrete, practical and professionally.
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Apply now until October 15!
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CULTURE OF REMEMBRANCE
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Russia's Critical Memory
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With the extended attack on Ukraine, the Russian Federation has definitively negated the essential consensus of the EVZ Foundation. In view of the violent history of the 20th century, this consensus consists of working for a peaceful Europe on a permanent basis. To what extent does Russian society support this rejection and which attitudes towards the culture of remembrance are now key? Does the Russian culture of remembrance still harbor critical potential despite state repression? The study "Russia's Critical Memory" by the internationally renowned, independent opinion research institute Levada in Moscow, funded by the EVZ Foundation, provides some answers!
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Read the entire study in the August edition of the OSTEUROPA magazine
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NS SURVIVORS
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GENIUS LOCI. PINKUS/PANUSZ
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Before the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the residents of the Pinkus tenement house in Łódź looked at the synagogue situated opposite. Henryk Panusz fought for half a century to return to the Pinkus tenement house - a story about big dreams and relentless realities. The film "GENIUS LOCI." was made in 2023 as part of a project funded by the EVZ Foundation for the "HaKoachAssociation", which provides psychosocial and domestic support for 15 survivors of National Socialist persecution in Łódź. "GENIUS LOCI." premiered in June 2023 and was shown at the Jewish Culture Festival SIMCHA - Wrocław, the Jewish Film Festival in Warsaw and on the 79th anniversary of the dissolution of the Litzmannstadt ghetto.
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Watch now
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CIVIL SOCIETY
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Study: Lines of conflict between pro-democratic groups in Belarusian society
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The Belarusian protest movement in 2020 united numerous groups. How do they differ and where are the current lines of conflict between pro-democratic forces? The EVZ Foundation's Solidarity Budget has been used since spring 2023 specifically to support projects to strengthen the commitment of refugees, the development of exile structures and other solidarity projects of civil society in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Among the partners is the newly founded Belarusian exile organization "Formula of Humanity" that networks Belarusian civil society players in Lithuania and has examined and made their points of view audible in a study.
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Read study now
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We are very pleased! We have received over 260 applications for our new funding program "YeMistechko - a place for everyone in Ukraine". Last month, our team selected 24 cultural institutions that will develop into inviting "third places" with EVZ funding - all over Ukraine. Many thanks and great appreciation for this incredible response and to all those who make the projects possible with their wealth of ideas and great personal commitment!
Why "third places"? By destroying archives, libraries and museums, Russia aims to eliminate Ukrainian culture as well as the historical memory of the Ukrainian nation. With the new "YeMistechko" funding program, the EVZ Foundation therefore specifically supports local educational and cultural institutions that shape and help to create social life as meeting points - and thus counter the Russian terror against civil society with something that actually preserves it.
With the help of local people, new meeting points will be created over the next few months for all those involved in shaping social life: for the local population as well as for internally displaced people, returnees, veterans, minorities and survivors of National Socialist persecution. Each of these meeting points will be unique. Three examples: In Novyj Bykiv, an administrative building occupied as a Russian barracks during the war will become a cultural venue for all; the City Museum in Lviv will be transformed into a vibrant center of the youth capital 2025 and the library in an almost completely destroyed southern Ukrainian village near Mykolaiv will be rebuilt as the socio-cultural center of the village.
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The photo shows Marianne Karmon on August 2, 2022. She sits in her living room in a retirement home in Jerusalem and plays with Leonore Schweynoch, a former volunteer with Action Reconciliation Service for Peace.
Karmon managed to flee to Sweden to escape the National Socialist terror in 1939. She passed away in December last year at the age of 102. According to ASF Managing Director, Jutta Weduwen, she was always able to tell young volunteers about her life and her travels in a very engaging way, as well as speaking openly about difficult life experiences.
Volunteers, also from Germany, make an important contribution to the psychosocial support for Shoah survivors in Israel. Due to the current security situation, however, no volunteer services are possible on site. The psychosocial need is great - especially among Shoah survivors, many of whom have been retraumatized by the terrorist attacks on October 7.
The work of ASF and other organizations for survivors in Israel is also supported by "Network Israel" which was founded a few weeks ago on the initiative of the EVZ Foundation.
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Dr. Elizabeta Jonuz, Professor of Social Work with a focus on Migration and International Affairs at University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hannover
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Prof. Jonuz, in 2021 you were a member of the Independent Commission on Antigypsyism (UKA), you were involved in an unprecedentedly comprehensive report on antigypsy attitudes in society. How do you view the Commission's work today?
The report by the Independent Commission on Antigypsyism is - despite the empirical basis and well-founded findings presented for the first time - only the beginning of a fundamental change in perspective, which requires a policy of catch-up justice and the targeted support for the participation of Roma and Sinti self-organizations. Thanks to all the Roma and Sinti NGOs active in Germany, discussions with the five of Sinti and Roma umbrella organizations and the two community-based studies on experiences of racism (Randjelović et al. 2020) and empowerment (Barz et al. 2020), the current effects of the NS genocide have been revealed. This applies to the racism against Sinti and Roma that continued after 1945 as well as to the structural and institutional antigypsy racism of the present day. Whether in contact with regulatory and social authorities, the police, youth welfare offices and housing offices, job centers as well as employment agencies, access to education and medical care, basic human and civil rights are repeatedly violated. Children from Roma and Sinti families experience racism (Randjelović et al. 2020) as an instance of socialization in Germany.
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Read more
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In mid-June, the Melde- und Informationsstelle Antiziganismus (Reporting and Information Unit for Antigypsyism) (MIA) published the second annual report on antigypsy incidents in Germany. The results are alarming: The number of incidents has almost doubled as compared to the previous year! Three aspects stand out: Both extreme violence and antigypsy statements and incidents of discrimination, some of which originate from state institutions, are increasing. However, these findings represent only the tip of the iceberg: Experts assume that the number of unreported antigypsy incidents is enormous. This fear is underpinned by the current documentation of the regional Reporting and Information Unit for Antigypsyism (MIA-RLP) in Rhineland-Palatinate and the Reporting and Documentation Unit for Misanthropic Incidents in Rhineland-Palatinate (m*power)). Their documentation of antigypsy incidents includes verbal insults, discrimination in the housing and labor market, and even physical violence. It is striking that the school context is mentioned especially often by those affected. According to MIA, there is a tendency for children affected by antigypsy hate speech to be systematically and continuously bullied at school. Would you like to understand the background and find out how solidarity with those affected can be practiced?
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DEKODER
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Last words in court
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The courtroom is one of the last places of free speech in Russia. In this dossier, the online platform dekoder documents a selection of closing statements by Russian defendants.
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Read now
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TAZ
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The Europe we want to live in
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The newspaper reports on the European youth theater festival "For/By/With" in Madrid, which showcased innovative theater works on the subject of the culture of remembrance. Our expert, Sonja Begalke, a specialist advisor at the EVZ Foundation, explains why theater can be a tool to counter historical falsification and denial.
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Read now
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DEUTSCHLANDFUNK
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Vatican researcher: Freeing Catholicism from its corset
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Deutschlandfunk interviews theologian Hubert Wolf - a special insight into his team's detective work! As head of the “Asking the Pope for Help” project funded by the Foundation EVZ, the church historian is given access to the Vatican archives to research letters of petition to Pope Pius XII.
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Listen now
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UNTIL AUGUST 11, COLOGNE
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CULTURE RESCUERS: Touring exhibition
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Get to know culture rescuers who suffered persecution under National Socialism, resisted and rescued culture into the present! The multimedia exhibition shows stories of culture rescuers from four generations. During the National Socialist era, they hid works of art and distributed leaflets; their descendants save music from oblivion, process memories in stories and comics, transform emotions into art, research family secrets and place Stolpersteine [stumbling stones].
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Visit on site now until August 11
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SEPTEMBER 4 TO 6, INGOLSTADT
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MITMACHT-Festival 2024
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The EVZ Foundation is taking part in this year's MITMACHT-Festival ! From September 4 to 6, players from all German-speaking countries will come together in Ingolstadt to strengthen our democracies. Together with Rikola Lüttgenau from the Buchenwald Memorial, our expert Anja Kräutler, a specialist advisor at the EVZ Foundation, is providing the workshop "Buchenwald was no 'bird shit'! Strategies against historical revisionism".
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Register now
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SEPTEMBER 16 & 17, ERFURT
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BYTES AND BIAS: Digital political education, but how?
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Antisemitic and racist discourses, practices and policies cannot be addressed without an understanding of the distribution channels "on the net", their modes of operation and algorithms. The Blickwinkel Conference of the Anne Frank Educational Center is taking place in cooperation with the EVZ Foundation. Would you like to discuss both the challenges and the opportunities for successful political education against antisemitism and racism in the digital age?
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Register now until August 18 August
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NEWSLETTER 09/2024 |
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Our next edition will be published at the beginning of September! |
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At the beginning of September, you can look forward to another newsletter from the Education Agenda NS-Injustice: We report on an outstanding Polish-German cooperation project that has created a comprehensive database and linked all available information on victims of the National Socialist regime from Poland. Look out! |
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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
www.stiftung-evz.de
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Responsible: Dr. Andrea Despot
Editorial: Katrin Kowark, Sophie Ziegler, Antonia Skiba, Jana Bültge, Sonja Folsche, Sarah Keller, Thomas Stein
Image Credits: photo - HaWa; MemorySavers; ASF/Ruthe Zuntz; Andre Bornhöfft |
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