Each year the Future of Remembrance Forum offers relatives of former concentration camp prisoners and victims of Nazi persecution, memorial site staff, and interested participants the opportunity to get to know one another and to exchange their views. The 6th Forum is to be held at Neuengamme Concentration Camp from 11 to 13 November 2020 and will revolve around the ways in which the memory of Nazism is reflected in the media.

Indeed, the media is playing an ever greater role in remembrance culture. It offers new possibilities for engaging with history and helps keep historical events ever present in our awareness of history. As these events recede ever further in time, media-based forms of engagement take the place of direct encounters with the contemporary witnesses of Nazi crimes. They offer relatives of former victims of persecution new opportunities to contribute their perspectives to a forward-looking memorial work that is to come ‘after the era of witness testimony has ended’. Most recently, the corona pandemic has also contributed to expediting the digitisation of the culture of remembrance.

Our aim is to take a differentiated look at the mediatisation of the culture of remembrance and its significance for our work with the descendants of former victims of persecution. The project #WaswillstDutun? showcases Instagram stories and interviews with young people about the significance of family history, including relatives of former Nazi persecutees of the third and fourth generation. Alongside this project, the Forum will also present innovative projects initiated by associations and initiatives from Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Germany, also featuring relatives in their role as culture of remembrance protagonists.

Under discussion will be forms of digital remembrance (e.g. https://www.kz-gedenkstaetteneuengamme.de/75befreiung/ ) that took the place of the commemorative ceremonies originally scheduled to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps, which had to be cancelled due to the corona virus.

Various forms of storytelling focusing on the Nazi concentration camps, such as written novels, graphic novels and digital narratives in social media, will also be presented. A performative reading will sound out the possibilities that artistic approaches have to offer remembrance and commemoration. Another module will consider what the production conditions, reception and educational use of lifestory interviews at the memorial sites might look like.

In Hamburg, relatives of former victims of Nazi persecution have teamed up with fellow campaigners to create a novel place of remembrance on the premises of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial. At the Forum, they will be reporting on this Space to Remember, Connect and Support and the importance of such media as posters and websites within this context. Thereafter, in conclusion to the Forum, we will all attend the official inauguration of the Space to Remember, Connect and Support. As part of the programme we were also planning an evening event with concentration camp survivor Dita Kraus, who recently published her memoirs. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, it cannot take place. The event will now be held online instead. 

Due to the COVID 19 pandemic the event will take place as a video conference.

Information and registration: A binding registration is required by 08.11.2020.  Registration: Amina Edzards, amina.edzards@gedenkstaetten-hamburg.de 

Programme (English) Programme (German)