Landscape of remembrance Lower Saxony

For decades, official and symbolic acts of remembrance remained the norm, with political and church representatives and delegations from victims' associations gathering annually at central memorials such as the inscription wall at the Bergen-Belsen Memorial.

In the 1970s, a history movement from below developed - mostly against stubborn resistance from politics and society. Research into regional history and the emergence of regional places of remembrance highlighted the totality of Nazi terror and the fact that the crimes had also been committed in the immediate neighbourhood. Victim groups that had previously received little attention, such as Sinti* and Roma*, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, patients of sanatoriums and nursing homes, deserters, prisoners of war and civilian forced labourers, also came to the fore.

Many of today's established memorials, documentation and learning centres in Lower Saxony emerged from this civic commitment, and local initiatives and associations continue to play a significant role in the vibrant culture of remembrance in Lower Saxony.

The numerous gravesites of victims of the Nazi regime in Lower Saxony are also increasingly being recognised not only as places of remembrance, but also as places of learning: Their history is being researched, the names and fates of those often buried anonymously are being researched.

Sites of the Nazi dictatorship

The impact of National Socialism cannot be understood if only the places of terror are considered. Other sites of the Nazi dictatorship have therefore long since come into focus: learning sites at historical sites where the Nazi regime staged itself, such as the Bückeberg near Hamelin as the location of the "Reich Harvest Thanksgiving Festivals", convey a historical-critical understanding of communisation processes in Nazi Germany: through the propagandistic and forced integration of all social groups, the "Gleichschaltung" (synchronization) of all media and other political and economic measures, the Nazi regime wanted to fill the reactionary utopia of a "people's community" (Volksgemeinschaft) with life. These measures were combined with a constantly radicalising exclusion of all people who did not belong to the imagined "people's community" (Volksgemeinschaft).

Examining the crimes of National Socialism, the underlying ideologies of group-based misanthropy and the mechanisms of integration and co-optation of a large part of the German population into the National Socialist system creates an awareness of the dangers of populist narratives and authoritarian structures - and offers approaches for strengthening democratic values today.