Funded projects

In 2024, historian Marcel Golczyk was commissioned by the Wehnen Memorial to create a database with the names and biographical data of victims of medical crimes in the state of Oldenburg during National Socialism. According to the "Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring" of 14 July 1933, around 2,600 people were forcibly sterilised in the state of Oldenburg alone. Over the last 15 years, numerous procedural files that were thought to have been lost have been rediscovered in the health authorities of Delmenhorst, Jever, Westerstede and Brake as well as in the archives of the cities of Oldenburg and Wilhelmshaven. Alongside the medical records of the Wehnen sanatorium and nursing home, these form the basis for the database mentioned above. The result is a list of 2,488 data records on hereditary health procedures. This forms an important source basis for the planned new permanent exhibition at the Wehnen Memorial.

In September 2024, a three-day meeting of relatives of former prisoners and detainees of the Emsland camps took place for the first time in Papenburg, where the new premises of the Documentation and Information Centre (DIZ) Emslandlager are located. The DIZ had already organised several meetings of former prisoners and detainees and their relatives between 1989 and 2007. Last year's meeting was a link to the following generations: More than 40 children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the 'Moor Soldiers' from Germany and abroad responded to the call to Papenburg. The extensive programme of lectures, film screenings and workshops also offered plenty of space to get to know each other and exchange ideas. During an excursion, many participants got to know some of the former camp sites for the first time.

On 25 May 2024, the Engerhafe Memorial in East Frisia was able to officially move into the completely renovated old rectory and present the new permanent exhibition "Forced Labour for the Wehrmacht" (German armed forces) to the public. The parish of Engerhafe and the Engerhafe Concentration Camp Memorial Centre are located there under one roof. Both are united by the desire to commemorate the former "concentration camp in the parish garden", which was established in 1944 as a satellite camp of Neuengamme concentration camp. Over 2,000 concentration camp prisoners were deployed in Aurich to dig anti-tank trenches for the "Friesenwall". 188 prisoners died in the 2 months that the camp existed. The new permanent exhibition focuses on the accounts of contemporary witnesses and eyewitnesses and also embeds the history of the Engerhafe concentration camp in the complex of forced labour in East Frisia. Since its opening, the memorial has been very popular with visitors.

On 7 December 2024, the Sandbostel Memorial opened the exhibition "Still there! - Children from Forbidden Relationships between Germans and Prisoners of War or Forced Labourers", which is dedicated to this topic that has hardly been researched scientifically and has so far had little presence in the culture of remembrance.

More than 20 children from forbidden relationships from Germany, Austria and the Netherlands were identified and recruited for the "Still there!" project. Two meetings at the Sandbostel camp memorial were the first encounters for many of them with people who have a similar biography to their own. For some, it was also the first time they had spoken to strangers about their history. With their memories, documents and photos, the participants laid the decisive foundation for the realisation of the exhibition.

The exhibition was on display at the Sandbostel Memorial until 14 March 2025 - it will then be shown in other cities in Germany.

The synagogue in Jever was built in 1880, destroyed in 1938 during the November pogrom and demolished soon afterwards. Today, an exhibition in the GröschlerHaus, which was built on the foundations of the synagogue, bears witness to Jever's Jewish history. Only two photos exist of the interior of the synagogue in Jever, showing only the rubble after its destruction in 1938. With the support of the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation and others, a virtual reconstruction of the synagogue was created in 2023 by the company Reunion Media (Norden). It presents the Jewish place of worship in 3D visualisation using VR glasses and on a monitor in 2D.

The sponsoring association of the former Stadthagen synagogue has developed the musical theatre piece "Haltestelle Izbica" together with the Ratsgymnasium Stadthagen and the Lyceum in Slupca (Poland). The play is based on the story of Danka Rozenthal, a Jewish girl from Slupca, and her Catholic friend Grazyna Hamacinska. The two of them exchanged their experiences of the German occupation in letters and diary entries, some of which are kept in the regional museum in Slupca. Danka Rozenthal was eventually deported to the Izbica Transit Camps - where her trail is lost. In the theatre play, the fate of Danka Rozenthal was presented in didactic theatre forms against the backdrop of exemplary scenes from the history of persecution during the Nazi era and accompanied by specially composed music. Performances took place in Slupca and Stadthagen.

The Günter Frank House in Neuenhaus is a new centre for remembrance and encounters as well as an extracurricular place of learning. The listed building selected for this purpose was extensively renovated and officially opened on 22 September 2024. The permanent exhibition provides a methodically diverse, interactive approach to the history of Jewish life and Nazi history on site. Based on the historical retrospective, Neuenhaus thus enables a contemporary examination - especially by young people - of the topics of the persecution and murder of Jews, war guilt and resistance, flight and migration, anti-Semitism, xenophobia and racism.