86 years ago – starting during the night of November 9 to 10, 1938 and continuing over the course of the following days – the November pogroms were perpetrated throughout the German Reich, orchestrated by the Nazi regime and carried out by the SA and SS.
Numerous synagogues, Jewish businesses, homes and schools were destroyed, vandalized and ransacked. More than 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and deported to the concentration camps in Buchenwald, Dachau and Sachsenhausen. 1,500 Jewish people were either murdered, lost their lives as result of the violence, or "chose" to commit suicide out of despair.

With the legal foundation for these actions having been laid previously in the "Nuremberg Laws", November 9 marked the beginning of the systematic disenfranchisement and persecution of the Jewish population by the National Socialists – a targeted escalation of antisemitism that culminated in the Holocaust.
As we remember what happened that night and its consequences, we are reminded that even today, Jewish life is still not safe in Germany and Europe and must be actively safeguarded.

With this in mind, we invite you to two special events:
on November 7, the commemorative event "Never again is now?" will be held in Berlin in memory of the November pogroms and also in the light of recent antisemitic incidents.
on November 9 we are accompanying the nationwide Cinema Day of the documentary Verity Circle. The film is an impressive collage of the memories of Helga Feldner-Busztin and Elisabeth Scheiderbauer, survivors of Theresienstadt concentration camp.

And: in this issue you can set off on a local search for traces of past Nazi crimes and find out more about our Education Agenda project "überLEBENSWEGE".

And guess what – there’s still such a thing as good news: our projects "Library of Lost Books" and "#LastSeen. Pictures of Nazi Deportations" have won the prestigious Grimme Online Award!

Drop by and engage in discussion with us – whether live at the events or online!

Dr. Andrea Despot
CEO of the EVZ Foundation

foundation for digital games culture

In connection with its Education Agenda project "Let’s Remember! Remembrance Culture with Games on Site", the Foundation for Digital Games Culture has clustered its work on games and remembrance culture in a new themed portal. In addition to an extensive games database "Games and Remembrance Culture", the portal offers a range of different educational, outreach and event formats which use digital games and the depiction of history through games for the purpose of introducing users to topics, allowing them to pursue their knowledge in greater depth and try out ideas: discover the further education program for employees at learning and memorial sites, for example, which was created as part of the project and tested at commemorative sites.

Those imprisoned and executed under National Socialism for rebelling against the German occupation in various ways are a group of persecutees who often tend to be neglected in the culture of remembrance: their stories were the focus of a project carried out at Wolfenbüttel Prison memorial site. The newly launched website contains biographies of the individuals concerned, interviews with contemporary witnesses, and a glossary on the subject of compensation for those convicted under the Nazi judiciary system in western Europe.

Today, the places where crimes were committed by the National Socialists are meadows, residential areas, restricted areas, hospitals, schools, commemorative sites or memorials – so the history of Nazi crimes is always on our doorstep, and their impact lingers at the very place where they were perpetrated. So what can we do to address the fact that in rural areas in particular, a lot of these sites are increasingly falling into oblivion?

Taking up this challenge, the project "überLEBENSWEGE" focused on marginalized groups of victims and historical sites in Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, such as the former sanatorium and nursing home Domjüch-Neustrelitz and the satellite camp Schlieben-Berga – interlinking the history of these sites with the stories of their victims.

The project creators specifically developed connecting paths, networks and cross-spatial structures so as to provide a link between the search for local and biographical traces to digital spaces of remembrance. For explorers and educators in the region, the project outcomes include digital film shelves on the eight remembrance sites and also eight #DigiHistoryBoxes – sets of educational materials on the sites of Nazi crimes to be investigated.

At the end of May 2024, the office of the Prosecutor-General of the Russian Federation declared our long-standing partner and project sponsor dekoder to be an "undesirable organization". The progressive criminalization of free media, civil society organizations and people who work with such organizations shows once again that the Russian regime is banning fundamental rights such as freedom of opinion, freedom of the press and academic freedom as a tool of oppression.
We spoke to dekoder’s science editor Leonid Klimov about current challenges and needs and also about the work dekoder has done on the storytelling documentary "The War and its Victims" – an Education Agenda project that was among those nominated for the Grimme Online Award in the category KNOWLEDGE and EDUCATION.

What does antisemitism-critical education look like after October 7, 2023? Would you like to join us in providing educational programs for adults and discussing the potential and challenges involved in antisemitism-critical education in the world of work? Sign up now for the workshop and networking day in connection with the project "Informed, Courageous, Committed! A Joint Initiative Against Antisemitism"! Members and employees of memorial sites, associations, NGOs, trade union federations and other providers of antisemitism-critical education who would like to network or gain further qualifications are invited to attend. 
The event is being held in cooperation with the Central Council of Jews in Germany and the House of the Wannsee Conference memorial.

In connection with the transnational project "National Socialist Injustice – ‘Degenerate Music’: Persecuted Swing Dancers and Jazz Musicians in Northwest Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland", the Bremer Bündnis für deutsch-tschechische Zusammenarbeit (Bremen Coalition for German-Czech Cooperation) will be hosting a project week in Prague in November. In addition to other highlights, the program includes a discussion of what jazz and swing dancers experienced under National Socialism, a lively city walk to historical dance spots in Prague – and lots of swing sessions, of course!