Zoni Weisz described the genocide of up to 500,000 Sinti/Sintize and Roma/Romnja as the “forgotten Holocaust”. On January 27, 2011 he was the first Sinto and Holocaust survivor to address the Bundestag and recalled the decades-long refusal to recognize this crime – a recognition that did not come until March 17, 1982.
the result of tireless struggles on the part of survivors and their families after 1945. State authorities did not agree to pay compensation and upheld racist stereotypes. It was only as the result of pressure from civil rights movements that initial progress was made, including activities by figures who belong to what is now the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma. An eleven-day hunger strike by twelve Sinti at the Dachau concentration camp memorial in 1980 marked a turning point in public awareness, forcing the German government at the time to acknowledge its responsibility for the genocide.
Yet recognition in words did not result in equal rights in society. Deeply rooted institutional antigypsyism persists to this day – in public authorities, health care, the housing and labor markets, and education.

 

Find out in this issue how the EVZ Foundation-funded project Unbroken – The Song of Survivors is finding innovative ways to combat antigypsyism and to raise awareness of the urgency of engaging critically with the past, especially among young people.

And in light of recent events: read in our section #KeinPlatzfürHass how the Education Agenda project Have you seen this book? is tackling hate speech and disinformation on social media.

Stay connected, keep up-to-date, and get involved with us.

Dr. Andrea Despot
CEO of the EVZ Foundation

cultura kulturveranstaltungen e.v. and campus bahnhof fellheim

"Butter, livestock, destruction": Workshops on agriculture in the NS era in the Allgäu

Are there memories of forced laborers or prisoners of war who were deployed in agriculture in the Allgäu? What do we know, what has been passed down, and what remains hidden? These are the questions explored by participants in the workshops and storytelling cafés being run under the Educational Agenda project "Butter, livestock, destruction". Through creative engagement, they look at the fate of individuals who lived under National Socialism – both those who suffered persecution and those who benefited from the regime. The education and participation project plans to host additional storytelling cafés and art workshops in the coming months. The results will be on display from September at the perpetrator site of the Kempten satellite camp. 

"B-Home. Places we long for": Second theatrical performance by Junges Schauspiel Frankfurt

With the multifaceted performance "Time for contemporary witnesses", created jointly with the Historical Museum Frankfurt, the theater group Junges Schauspiel Frankfurt explores which memories are preserved and told – and which are not. A second theater project now builds on this:  how are the issues of labor migration and immigration discussed in Germany? B-Heimat questions the historical and contemporary structures of labor migration, tracing an arc from forced labor under National Socialism to the recruitment of so-called “guest workers”. 
Though this project under the Education Agenda NS Injustice, the intergenerational ensemble combines artistic research with personal stories to offer a fresh perspective on the history of Frankfurt’s Gallus district – a place marked by Nazi crimes, forced labor, industrial disputes, and migrant self-organization.
The premiere of "B-Home. Places we long for" is on March 8, 2025 at the Kammerspiele in Frankfurt.

Queer stories – past and present  

Under an Education Agenda project, journalists and activists from Belarus, Germany, Poland and Ukraine are researching the role of media in spreading homophobic and transphobic narrative, and they are also taking action themselves: the result is a collection of insightful reports published in outlets such as taz, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, and the Ukrainian platform Hromadske.

GERMAN NATIONAL THEATER WEIMAR

Remembrance as a Resource: a discursive, interactive, and artistic theme week in Weimar

By asking the question “Do you remember...?” we can tap into narratives about our past. But what happens when fewer and fewer of those who experienced events at first hand are there to tell their stories? What does such a critical juncture mean in terms of how we talk about the Holocaust and how we commemorate it – both in private and in public spaces? How do we respond to attempts to exploit or misuse remembrance? What role can theater and art play in shaping a culture of remembrance?
From March 29 to April 6, 2025 – eighty years after the liberation of Buchenwald concentration camp and the end of World War II – the German National Theater Weimar will explore these questions from multiple perspectives through interaction and art: panel discussions, concerts, performances, and workshops will delve into the causes and consequences of National Socialism while at the same time addressing contemporary societal challenges.
Program highlights? A dance theater project about photographer Lee Miller, a workshop on researching one’s own family history with historian Johannes Spohr, and a discussion about the life and work of Bauhaus artist Franz Ehrlich, who designed the gate inscription of Buchenwald concentration camp, Jedem das Seine ["To each his own"].

"With us, knowledge is not only learned but embraced through the way we live." This quote from historian and psychoanalyst Roger Frie was used to introduce the exhibition "What does the murder of people with disabilities under National Socialism have to do with us?", which opened in Münster on January 17, organized in connection with the Education Agenda project "Grafeneck – Münster / 1940 – today". Running until the end of January, the exhibition featured works created by students on excursions to the Grafeneck memorial site. More than 10,600 people with intellectual disabilities or mental illnesses were murdered there by the Nazis in 1940. Led by the Catholic University of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Grafeneck memorial site, the aim of this project in the area of art and cultural education is to raise the visibility of fundamental and extreme dehumanization, taking the example of Nazi "euthanasia".

NEW PODCAST BY THE EVZ FOUNDATION

Solidarity with Ukraine: the podcast "Trümmer & Träume" [Debris and dreams]

In four episodes, former Odessa writer-in-residence Ira Peter speaks to people whose voices often go unheard – survivors of Nazi crimes, museum directors protecting artworks from rockets, young people building bridges between Germany and Ukraine, and activists from the Roma/Romnja community.

The podcast explores how Ukraine is navigating past and present traumas, transforming museums into digital spaces, and seeking to build a resilient civil society. Each episode highlights everyday heroes and visionary projects that demonstrate why Ukraine is so vital to Europe.

New episodes are released monthly on our YouTube channel, Spotify, and all major podcast platforms.

Radoslav Ganev, founder of Romanity e. V.

The project "Unbroken – The Song of Survivors" tells the story of the persecution and resistance of Sinti/Sintize and Roma/Romnja during and after National Socialism in a unique form as an anime musical.

In what ways do members of the Sinti/Sintize and Roma/Romnja community contribute to the project?
Sinti and Roma have been studied and written about for centuries, but they’ve rarely been involved in the process. Participation and empowerment were essential to us from the very outset, so we’re really proud to have created a community-based project. The idea for this initiative came from our team, and the majority of the actors involved are from the Sinti and Roma community itself, as are the musicians and many of the project staff. We’re in constant dialog: our aim is to demonstrate the vast potential within the community. 

Teaching (in)justice at the 26th Karlsruhe Conference for Archive Education

What is justice, and what is injustice? Can a legal ruling itself be unjust?
A conference hosted by the General State Archives Karlsruhe and the project "Denunciation – Repression – Persecution: Political Dissent and Everyday Criminality Before the Nazi Special Courts 1933–1945" being run by the school student learning center Schülerakademie Karlsruhe explores these questions in the historical context of the Nazi injustice system, while also addressing current threats to the rule of law. In addition to providing opportunities for engagement and discussion, the conference also promotes networking between archives, schools, and extracurricular partners.

Online workshops on the visual novel "ErinnerungsZeit" for educators and multipliers

The Education Agenda project "ErinnerungsZeit" is a visual novel that explores the contemporary relevance of remembering Nazi injustice and resistance. This interactive comic empowers young people to take action against group-focused enmity. Each episode encourages people to take concrete steps to counter hate and incitement – both within the visual novel and in day-to-day life. Free of charge and held once a month, the workshops provide educators and multipliers with support materials and methodological insights on how to use the visual novel with young people.

Exhibition: Karya 1943. Forced labor and the Holocaust

How can more be done to raise visibility and awareness of the little-known history of Nazi forced labor in occupied Greece? By means of a multi-perspective touring exhibition, which will be on display from March 29 onwards at the Folklore and Ethnological Museum of Macedonia & Thrace in Thessaloniki – a city that was once home to a major community of Sephardic Jews. Based on previously unknown photographs of Jewish men forced to work on a railway near Karya in central Greece, students from Germany and Greece have conducted geoarchaeological investigations at the site, searching for mass graves and traces of forced labor.
Tip: The exhibition can also be viewed at the Nazi Forced Labor Documentation Center in Berlin until March 30, 2025!

Dance performances "Bridge for the Future" to mark May 8.

At the bridge over the Rhine in Breisach, the Educational Agenda project "Bridge for the Future  – Pont pour l’avenir" combines historical research, biographical work, and dance. In collaboration with the internationally renowned Battery Dance Company from New York, Blaues Haus Breisach brings the history of Nazi injustice to life for young people from France and Germany through the Dancing to Connect program. 
The crowning conclusion of the project is a joint German-French dance performance on the Rhine Bridge on May 17 and 18.

Our next issue comes out at the beginning of April!

How do we react to war propaganda, hatred of minorities and historical myths? In free societies, civil society actors are involved in finding answers to these questions. Find out in the next edition of the EVZ newsletter what answers our partners and projects are discovering in their local areas.