Last updated 29. December 2023 | Sprecherinnen
From November 8-13, 2021 , a memorial week on the theme of “Awakening” took place on the campus of the University of Lüneburg (the former Scharnhorst barracks). Together, they remembered those persecuted by National Socialism and debated how to deal with the history of the campus.
The Scharnhorst barracks, which were built in 1936, housed, among others, the Infantry Regiment 47 and parts of the Wehrmacht’s Infantry Division 110, which were deployed from Lüneburg and the region in south-eastern Europe, North Africa and Russia as part of the so-called “Barbarossa Operation” – the code word for the campaign of annihilation against the Soviet Union – and were involved in various war crimes. The Nazi past is not visible on today’s campus of the University of Lüneburg.
During this week, students and citizens of the city were given the opportunity to learn about the crimes of National Socialism and to commemorate the victims.
programm
05.11.-16.11.2021
Exhibition container #stolenmemory
in cooperation with the Arolsen Archives
#StolenMemory is a campaign by the Arolsen Archives to return personal belongings – so-called effects – of former concentration camp prisoners to their relatives. As part of the “Culture in rural areas” funding measure of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, a mobile #StolenMemory traveling exhibition was developed and installed in an overseas container. It is accompanied by a website, an app and educational materials. The Arolsen Archives are an international center on Nazi persecution with the world’s most comprehensive archive on the victims and survivors of National Socialism.
The accompanying materials were awarded the Grimme Online Award in 2020 and can be viewed at https://stolenmemory.org/
The exhibition container is located in front of the Leuphana canteen from 05.11.2021 to 16.11.2021 and can be visited from Monday to Friday from 10:00-18:00. Visits at the weekend are possible by appointment (contact via ).
Monday – 08.11.2021
Lecture by
Cheryce von Xylander
PhD, and Prof. Dr. Ulf Wuggenig
Selective memory. Rearmament and disarmament of a 1000-year-old provincial town
(2G)
Lüneburg boasts not only more than 1000 years of history, but also a no less long tradition as a town of soldiers. The darkest part of its history was undoubtedly the 1930s and 1940s, the period in which the Jewish population fell victim to persecution, expulsion and murder. In the 1930s, the military infrastructure of the Hanseatic city underwent enormous expansion in its northern, eastern and southern parts under National Socialist aegis. The Europe-wide operations of the air force based in the north-east under Wolfram von Richthofen’s command gradually found their way into critical cultural memory, as did the deployment of various infantry and artillery units, with and without horses, which still took place in peacetime. This was covered extensively in the local media in words and pictures at the time. A veil of ignorance, on the other hand, still lies over those units and their military practice that were mobilized in Lüneburg in a covert form during the Second World War and were deployed primarily in Eastern Europe in the course of the war of extermination against the Jewish and Slavic population there. The lecture addresses the problem of selective memory in the city of Lüneburg, including its college and university, as well as its social and psychological foundations, using archive material that has so far gone unnoticed.
The event starts at 18:00 in lecture hall 3.
Tuesday – 09.11.2021
Opening speech #stolenmemory
tba
The event opens at 10:00 a.m., the venue is in front of the canteen.
Workshop: (Great)Grandpa was (not) a Nazi? by Oliver von Wrochem – NS perpetration in the family and society
(2G)
A workshop on biographical approaches to family history and family stories will start at 11:00 in the multifunctional room (Building 9, 1st floor). It offers all interested parties assistance in researching the history of their own family. How can research be conducted on Nazi perpetrators, bystanders, followers and victims of Nazi persecution as well as on places where crimes were committed in archives, on the Internet, in databases and online catalogs?
Registrations for the workshop by 07.11.2021 at
Long Night of the Digital Memorial in cooperation with the Arolsen Archives
(2G)
On the night of November 9, 1938 and in the days that followed, the National Socialists carried out targeted acts of violence against the Jewish population. The police did not intervene – hardly anyone dared to help the neighbors. To mark the anniversary of the November pogroms, we invite you to join us in building a digital memorial to the victims of National Socialism and to set an example for respect, diversity and democracy.
Together with the Arolsen Archives, we have planned a Europe-wide campaign at universities to build this digital monument with you. The Arolsen Archives are an international center on Nazi persecution with the world’s most comprehensive archive on the victims and survivors of National Socialism.
On November 9, the documents from the access reports of the Dachau concentration camp from precisely these days will be available for digital recording of the contents. By recording the names of the prisoners, the participants actively remember the events and in particular the deportation of 30,000 Jews to concentration camps. They are confronted with the sharp increase in the number of prisoners in the Dachau concentration camp. The “reason for detention” for all of them is: “Protective custody Jew”. The original documents make it clear how exclusion turned into open violence.
At 5:30 pm we will hear a lecture by Dr. Christian Höschler in the auditorium (central building), who will talk about the importance of digital remembrance culture, #everynamecounts and the work of the Arolsen Archives. Then the digitization campaign will begin, and we need you to bring your laptops and help us give relatives and the public the opportunity to search for victims online and give them back their names. In the foyer there will be food and drinks, short films and space to chat and exchange ideas.
Tour & cleaning stumbling blocks: Commemoration of the November pogroms 1938 in cooperation with Antifa
In memory of the victims of National Socialism, a tour of the city will take place from 19:00. The Anna&Arthur (Katzenstraße 2) will provide cleaning utensils, grave lights and information material about the stumbling stones and people.
You can then follow the memorial independently in groups of two or households.
Thursday – 11.11.2021
Workshop on the prevention of anti-Semitism in cooperation with the Amadeu Antonio Foundation
(2G / online)
Anti-Semitism has a long history and is still one of the greatest challenges facing our society today. Hatred of Jews, the rejection of Jewishness wherever it appears, is widespread and anti-Semitically motivated acts of violence are at a consistently high level. The Amadeu Antonio Foundation is committed to combating anti-Semitism and offers the opportunity to approach the topic from multiple perspectives in its workshop. The aim is to perceive anti-Semitism as a cross-cutting issue, to understand its function and ideology and to derive recommendations for action against the problem. The workshop aims to contribute to a strong, pluralistic civil society that feels empowered and committed to countering anti-democratic, misanthropic tendencies within our society. More detailed information will follow.
The workshop will take place at 14:00 via Zoom.
Join Zoom meeting
https://leuphana.zoom.us/j/98734908973?pwd=d0FJUjJoVUVYSlRyQVdXVS84OU9nQT09
Meeting ID: 987 3490 8973
Identification code: 998218
You can join online or come to MuFuZi in building 9 at 14:00 to take part in the workshop.
Friday – 12.11.2021
Reading “Amon – My grandfather would have shot me”
(2G)
It is a shock that shatters her entire self-image: at the age of 38, Jennifer Teege discovers who she is by chance. In a library she finds a book about her mother and her grandfather Amon Göth. Millions of people know Göth’s story. In Steven Spielberg’s film “Schindler’s List”, the brutal concentration camp commander is the drinking buddy and adversary of Oskar Schindler, the man who saved the Jews. Göth was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people and was hanged in 1946. His partner Ruth Irene, Jennifer Teege’s beloved grandmother, commits suicide in 1983.
Jennifer Teege is the daughter of a German mother and a Nigerian father. She was raised by adoptive parents and then studied in Israel. Now she is confronted with a family secret that won’t let her rest. How can she still go under the noses of her Jewish friends? And what should she tell her own children? Jennifer Teege deals intensively with the past. She meets her mother again, whom she has not seen for many years.
The reading will take place at 6 p.m. in the Forum of the Central Building, admission is free and no prior registration is required.
Saturday – 13.11.2021
Guided tour of the Lüneburg “euthanasia” memorial site
As part of “Aktion T4”, at least 475 adult patients from the former Lüneburg sanatorium and nursing home were deported to the Hadamar and Pirna-Sonnenstein institutions in 1940/41 due to illness or disability and almost all of them were murdered there. The Lüneburg institution was also the central collection point for all patients of foreign origin in northern Germany. Over 100 patients died as a result of starvation and lack of treatment. In 1944, over 60 foreign patients were deported to killing centers and murdered there. From as early as 1943, more than a fifth of all patients died as part of the “decentralized euthanasia” due to inadequate and incorrect care.
From 1941 to 1945, Lüneburg was one of more than 30 so-called “children’s wards” in psychiatric institutions throughout the Reich. Of the 727 children and adolescents admitted there, 425 did not survive the “children’s ward”. At least 300 children and young people were murdered on site with drugs. Another 100 or so children were starved to death by doctors and nursing staff. The doctors who were investigated for the murder in the late 1940s and 1960s were not convicted for their actions.
Register for the guided tour of the “Euthanasia” Memorial Lüneburg by 12.11.2021 at The guided tour will take place on 13.11.21 at 12 noon on site at the “Euthanasia” Memorial Lüneburg Am Wienebütteler Weg 1, 21339 Lüneburg.
