Keeping local remembrance alive

Researching local history, shaping remembrance together

Remembering the Ohrdruf concentration camp

The Ohrdruf concentration camp, a former sub-camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is little known in Germany. On the initiative of the Schloss Friedenstein Gotha foundation, a new remembrance project was launched in 2022—the “Deutsche Erinnerungslücke KZ Ohrdruf” (German Memory Gap: Ohrdruf Concentration Camp). The Arolsen Archives and the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials all participate.

The joint development of the digital learning module “Suspicious: A Landscape of Crime” about the former camp gave rise to cooperation with many local stakeholders. Not only did links to other projects such as #everynamecounts evolve, but also entirely new initiatives. Young people are playing an active role in local remembrance projects and researching topics of interest to them. Partners from the municipal administration and the local civil society are participating in events such as the recent memorial service honouring the 80^th anniversary of the liberation of the Ohrdruf camp. These close local collaborations continue to generate fresh ideas for new content for educational resources.

Commemoration at a historical site

Eighty years after the liberation of the Buchenwald subcamp Ohrdruf, the cooperation partners and a large number of local initiatives commemorated the victims of National Socialism at the site. More than 150 school pupils planned the whole-day event, which encompassed remembrance projects and workshops, a memorial ceremony, and the subsequent panel discussion

More about the event

Suspicious –  A Landscape of Crime

With the digital learning module “Suspicious,” users can explore the history of the Ohrdruf concentration camp on their own online. By way of a digital map, they can zoom themselves into four 360° views. Historical photos, videos, quotations, biographies and lots of further information are directly embedded in the landscapes to bring the hidden stories of Ohrdruf to light and show the relevance of the camp’s history for the present.

#StolenMemory: Europe’s young people remember

The educational project #StolenMemory brings young people from different countries together to explore the history of Nazi persecution. In German-Polish and international youth encounters they research individual fates—often with a local connection—in their cities, at commemorative sites, and in archives. Thanks to funding from the “Paths to Remembrance” program, the Arolsen Archives have been working closely with the German-Polish Youth Office (GPYO) since 2019.

An example: Since 2020, the Stormarn District vocational school in Bad Oldesloe has carried out a #StolenMemory project every year with up to 350 young people from Germany, Poland, and Ukraine. In one case, pupils from Bad Oldesloe and Mława worked together to trace the son of concentration camp survivor Marianna Miedzinska. And in 2024, his mother’s necklace was returned to him at last–more than 80 years after it was taken from her. The project was awarded the Willi Piecyk Prize.