19th East-West European Memorial Meeting Kreisau
Remember - tell - share
Eyewitnesses in memorial work
After a gap of two years, a memorial meeting was held again in Presence from 30 March to 2 April 2022. The topic was contemporary witnesses.
For decades, the history of the 20th century has no longer been told solely through political decisions, incisive war developments or "great historical figures". Teaching history in dialogue with contemporary witnesses is particularly attractive for a broad public. Authentic accounts by Holocaust survivors or victims of the communist dictatorships preserve individual experiences and convey everyday memories and emotions. In the work on memorials in Eastern and Western Europe, individual memories are documented and used for historical and political education. It is precisely in this context that the topic of contemporary witnessing is often critically questioned. In view of the fact that contemporary witnesses of the Holocaust and the Second World War will only be able to tell their stories for a limited period of time, the "end of contemporary witnessing" was also the topic of the meeting.
The current situation of a massive war in Ukraine, made worse by the two-year break (although a virtual meeting could take place in 2021) had a direct impact on the memorial meeting. Thus, a good 40 people from 10 countries gathered in Kreisau this year and an important topic was the current experience of violence and how to deal with it - in places that deal with historical experiences of violence.
After two years of online experience, some of the speakers could also be connected virtually - including simultaneous interpretation in four languages - so that we were able to conduct the event in a hybrid way. Understandably, we had far fewer participants from Ukraine and Russia this year. But both countries were represented and it is the aim of the organisers to keep this dialogue going also in the future.
The meeting was organised by staff of the Krzyzowa Foundation for Mutual Understanding in Europe, the Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Eastern Germany, the Remembrance and Future Forum, the Protestant Academy in Berlin and the Foundation Remembrance Responsibility and Future.
