As part of the international commemorative ceremony on 3 May 2024 at the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, a panel discussion was held with contemporary witness Dita Kraus and three young people. The discussion was filmed and is now available online in all six languages of the event. The videos can be found below.
"Conversation Café" was part of the programme to mark the 79th anniversary of liberation
The conversation was part of the "Conversation Café" youth project at the memorial, which was sponsored by the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future. With the support of their team leaders, Wiebke Elias and Marie Stahlfeld, the young people prepared for conversations with concentration camp survivors, focussing in particular about passing on memory to future generations. The interview with Dita Kraus was conducted by Tiba Abdulkareem, Vincent Rejmanowski, and Emilia Stöber.
Dita Kraus has been active as a contemporary witness since the 1990s
Edith (Dita) Kraus was born in Prague in 1929 to Jewish parents. The family was persecuted by the National Socialists and initially deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto. She was then sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, where her father died. She and her mother were then transported to three satellite camps of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp and finally to the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, where she was liberated in 1945. Her mother died shortly after liberation. Dita returned to Prague alone at the age of just 16. In 1949, she emigrated to Israel with her husband and child, where she still lives today. Since the 1990s, she has been active as a contemporary witness, repeatedly speaking about her experiences and recording them in her memoir, A Delayed Life.
The conversation was filmed by Stefan Corinth and subtitled by Sophia Annweiler, Ulrike Jensen, and Susann Lewerenz. The film was also translated into English, French, Dutch, Polish, and Ukrainian. The translations are by Jessica Spengler (English), Annick Eckel (French), Martin Reiter (Dutch), Georg Erdelbrock (Polish), and Marta Rosavytska (Ukrainian).