#StolenMemory Volunteers Meet in Bad Arolsen
In the first week in March, the #StolenMemory project took center stage. The Arolsen Archives expressed their gratitude to the dedicated people who help return the personal belongings (personal effects) of concentration camp prisoners to their families by inviting them to the 1st International Meeting of Volunteers.
“The Greatest Detective Story in History“ – that was the title of a radio play written in 1950 and broadcast by the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation). It tells the story of efforts to trace victims of Nazi persecution and clarify their fates – a task that was taken up in Arolsen in 1948. Almost eighty years later, a great deal of investigative instinct and persistence came together in one room at the meeting of international #StolenMemory volunteers. More than 1,000 families have already been found – these are the impressive results of the search efforts conducted by the tracing team at the Arolsen Archives in close cooperation with the international volunteers as part of #StolenMemory.
For two days, twenty-six volunteers from Belgium, France, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, and Germany came together in Bad Arolsen. Some of them had already been in contact with each other, but had not yet met in person.
During their stay, the volunteers explored the archives, participated in multilingual guided tours of the town, and spoke to representatives of the international media. But it was the discussions they had among themselves that were particularly valuable: The volunteers talked about their current search projects, providing one another with valuable advice on what to do when a search seems to reach a dead end. As much of the research they carry out transcends geographical and language divides, international cooperation is invaluable.
I think it is so important to remember the victims of Nazi persecution and to give them back their voice. The Nazis tried to erase them.
Megan Cameron, a volunteer from Canada, describes the importance of #StolenMemory
Who are the people who get involved with #StolenMemory?
One is just fifteen, another is eighty-five – the volunteers who work on the #StolenMemory project come from different generations and backgrounds. School classes get involved under the guidance of international teachers from Poland and Germany who have supported #StolenMemory for years and were present at the meeting. Some of the volunteers work together in teams – like the four young people from Oświęcim (Poland) who attended the meeting together. Antonio Muñoz Sánchez, a Spanish historian, has managed to track down the families of almost all the people from Spain whose personal effects had been kept in the archives for decades. Many of the volunteers have supported the project enthusiastically for years.
The #StolenMemory project has changed our perspective on history and expanded it beyond books. We have learned to appreciate the work archives do.
Sabina Kwiatkowska, Zofia Przeworska, Mateusz Mika, Kinga Paciorek, A team of volunteers from Poland describe the personal impact of #StolenMemory
On the evening of the first day, Gaëlle Nohant, a French author, read from her book “Le bureau d’éclaircissement des destins” (literally The Bureau for the Clarification of Fates). Floriane Azoulay, Director of the Arolsen Archives, moderated the event and provided translations.
Gaëlle Nohant, author
Diligence, patience, and a nose for investigation are indispensable for the volunteers’ work – luck is sometimes needed as well. On the second day of the meeting, the volunteers were sitting in the cafeteria talking to each other. When Martina Gruber and Malgorzata Przybyla, an employee of the Arolsen Archives, stepped forward, the volunteers fell silent, all eyes eyes were drawn to a dark case with two gold rings inside. They belonged to August Hanowski, a teacher who had been persecuted and imprisoned during the Nazi era. Just one week before the meeting, his grandniece Martina Gruber had been tracked down, and the rings were now solemnly handed over to her.
The intense days spent together by the volunteers powerfully demonstrated the importance of networking, dialogue, and outreach: without the assistance of international volunteers, it would never have been possible to return items to so many families. There are still about 2,000 personal objects waiting to be returned to their rightful owners – and the volunteers are keen to continue their untiring search +. “This weekend I will have a short break, but then I will go on searching,” says Manuela Golc, a volunteer from Poland.
