To mark the end of the war and the liberation of the concentration camps, many international guests travelled to Hamburg in early May 2026. Among them were former prisoners Helga Melmed (USA) and Barbara Piotrowska (Poland) with family members, as well as delegations from the member associations of the Amicale Internationale KZ Neuengamme as well as other relatives of former prisoners of the Neuengamme concentration camp from Belgium, Germany, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Spain, the Czech Republic, Ukraine and the USA.

At the main commemorative event on Sunday, 3 May 2026, held at the former Walther Works within the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, every seat was taken when Oliver von Wrochem welcomed the guests.

He emphasised that, in a time of social polarization, it is more important than ever to work together with groups who are striving to gear our society towards basic and human rights and who are fighting historical revisionism, antisemitism and racism. He added that, in the current climate, it is also critically important for families and society to engage with the causes, forms and consequences of National Socialist violence.

The President of the City Parliament, Carola Veit, and Maria Bering, representing the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, delivered welcoming addresses before Judith Jägermann (born 1929) addressed the participants of the commemorative event via a video, in which she recounted her history of persecution by the National Socialist regime. She was deported from the Theresienstadt ghetto to satellite camps of the Neuengamme concentration camp and was liberated at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. “We were all terminally ill and many died. But the three of us survived. I thank God for that.”

Following “Le Chant de Partisans”, Katrin Duerinckx, a board member of the Amicale Belge de Neuengamme and the NCPGR Meensel Kiezegem ’44, spoke about her grandfather, Ferdinand Duerinckx, who died at the age of 34 in Neuengamme concentration camp.

Finally, “Die Moorsoldaten” was sung along to by many people in the room. The State Youth Music School provided the musical accompaniment for the event.

Programm und Reden der Gedenkveranstaltung (DE)

Rede Oliver von Wrochem (DE)

Programme and Speeches for the Commemoration Ceremony (EN)

Programme et discours de la commémoration (FR)

Programma en toespraken van de herdenkingsbijeenkomst (NL)

Program i przemówienia uroczystości (PL)

Programa y discursos  del Acto Conmemorativo (ESP)

Програма та виступи пам'ятного заходу (UKR)

The commemorative event concluded with a wreath-laying ceremony at the former detention bunker.

A Space to Remember and Memory Matters

On Saturday, 2 May 2026, under the motto “Memory Matters”, various civil society initiatives presented their projects promoting diverse forms of remembrance, including theatre and music performances, discussions, a staged reading, acrobatics and interviews.

As part of this event, the new exhibition by the “Aid Network for Survivors of Nazi Persecution in Ukraine” – comprising 47 memorial sites, foundations and remembrance initiatives – was opened: “Perhaps I Will Live to See Peace” profiles 10 survivors of Nazi persecution in Ukraine. The proceeds from the café, which the Working Group on Church Memorial Work provided on the day, were donated to the network.

In the morning, family members printed personalised posters they designed in memory of former prisoners at the “Space to Remember, Support and Connect". As they presented their posters in the former brickworks, they shared their family stories. Magdalena Wajsen, granddaughter of Kazimierz Wajsen, a Polish former prisoner, and Jacques Durif, son of the French former prisoner Louis Durif, spoke about the importance of remembrance. Jiahe Liu provided musical accompaniment on the saxophone. In an emotional finale, relatives who had travelled from various countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Spain and Ukraine, held up the printing plates and read out the names of their family members who had been imprisoned in the concentration camp. Afterwards, everyone put up the posters.

Reden  Speeches  Discours  Toespraak  Przemówienie  Discurso  Промова

Discussions with eyewitnesses and relatives of victims of Nazi persecution

On Monday, 4 May 2026, school classes visited the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial for public discussions with two survivors of the Neuengamme concentration camp and four relatives of victims of Nazi persecution. Helga Melmed (Venice, Florida) survived, Auschwitz, satellite camps of the Neuengamme concentration camp and the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Barbara Piotrowska (Warsaw, Poland) and her parents were deported to the Neuengamme concentration camp following the Warsaw Uprising. Martin Liebl (Prague, Czech Republic) and Peter and Moira Hart (Wheathampstead, United Kingdom) spoke about their mothers, Dagmar Lieblová (1929–2018) and Kitty Hart-Moxon (born 1926). Both women were among the few survivors of the Nazi persecution of their Jewish families. Kristof Van Mierop (Dudzele, Belgium) spoke about his grandfather Roger Vyvey, who, as a prisoner, survived the bombing of the prisoner ships in Lübeck Bay. 

In the evening at the Patriotische Gesellschaft, Ulrike Jensen (Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial) spoke about passing on memories with Titti Fränkel and Nina Halden Rönnlund from Sweden, whose mothers, Livia Fränkel (1927–2025) and Mira Teeman (1926–2008), were deported with their Jewish families from Hungary and Poland to Nazi extermination camps, survived, and emigrated to Sweden to start a new life. 

Neustadt

Ahead of the commemorative event marking the 81st anniversary of the bombing of the concentration camp ships in Neustadt Bay, both relatives and members of the public were able to take boat trips to the sites where the ships sank.

On the morning of 3 May, the international commemorative event took place at the Cap Arcona Memorial Cemetery in Neustadt in Holstein. Speakers included Martine Letterie, President of the Amicale Internationale KZ Neuengamme; Philippe Cosnay, President of the Amicale française de Neuengamme et de ses Kommandos; Heinrich-Anton Holtfester, Mayor of Neustadt; and Eka von Kalben, Vice-President of the State Parliament of Schleswig-Holstein. Students from the Küstengymnasium Neustadt and a choir of students from Neustadt provided the musical accompaniment for the event. 

On the morning of 4 May, a public ‘Marketplace of Memories’ took place in Neustadt in Holstein. At various stands, project results from different schools in Neustadt, which had been prepared in the run-up to the commemorative days, were presented. In addition, associations, organisations and institutions promoting democracy showcased their activities. The events in Neustadt were organised by the Amicale Internationale KZ Neuengamme and the town of Neustadt in Holstein. 

Further Events

On 6 May, Helga Melmed spoke at the Hamburg Parliament during the ceremony commemorating those who liberated and were liberated on 8 May 1945. Speech