More than 15 million people from all over the world have visited Brandenburg’s memorial sites over the past three decades and have primarily dealt with the Nazi terror there. In the coming year, the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation will celebrate its 30th anniversary. Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD) honored the memorials on Thursday to mark the anniversary of their founding on January 1 as “places that touch, move and shake people up”.
The memorials kept alive the memory of the crimes of the National Socialists and the consequences of the Second World War, emphasized Woidke in Potsdam. Especially in these times it is more important than ever to “keep reminding us of the basic consensus of our society: ‘Never again fascism'”. This message remains an important reminder for all generations.
The foundation includes, among other things, the memorials in the former Sachsenhausen and Ravensbrück concentration camps and the memorial for the victims of the Nazi euthanasia murders in Brandenburg an der Havel. More than 200,000 people were imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp between 1936 and 1945, and more than 140,000 people in the Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp between 1939 and 1945. Tens of thousands of them were murdered by the SS or died in other ways.
The authentic and touching voices of the survivors fall silent more and more. We are responsible for ensuring that they do not finally fall into oblivion.
Manja Schüle (SPD), Brandenburg’s Minister of Culture
With their work, the memorials create awareness among young people of how important it is to decisively oppose right-wing extremism, anti-Semitism and exclusion, stressed Woidke. His thanks go to all those who, with their work in the foundation, “give a face to the past with passion and great national and international reputation”.
With innovative offers, virtual projects and digital history teaching, the foundation is also breaking new ground in remembrance work, emphasized Brandenburg’s Minister of Culture Manja Schüle (SPD): “The authentic and touching voices of the survivors are becoming more and more silent. We are responsible for ensuring that they do not finally fall into oblivion.” Schüle also recalled Leon Schwarzbaum, Elisabeth Vakalopoulou, Alexander Fried and Alfons Studzinski, who survived the Nazi terror in Sachsenhausen and Ravensbrück and died in 2022.
Foundation director Axel Drecoll emphasized that the memorial sites had developed into important European memorial and learning sites over the past 30 years. In the meantime, however, the exhibitions, some of which are more than 20 years old, urgently need to be renewed. The preservation of the listed buildings and relics remains a permanent task. According to the information, around 78.7 million euros were used for the renovation and redesign of the historical places from 1993 to 2022.
The foundation, which was set up on January 1, 1993, is supported by the state and federal government. According to the information provided, Brandenburg was the first federal state to set up a memorial foundation to remind victims of terror, war and tyranny. Other federal states then followed the example, it said. A ceremony to mark the anniversary is planned for autumn 2023. (epd)
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