Annual Report 2024: Projects and Campaigns
Digital Learning Resources for Gen Z
arolsen school: Exploring Nazi History Through Mini-Games
In May 2024, the Arolsen Archives presented a set of new digital educational resources for Gen Z: arolsen school. This freely accessible, modular learning environment includes seven interactive mini games that focus on the history of the Nazi era and on issues related to social participation since 1945. The games cover a wide range of topics – exploring historical places and events and also looking at current social issues.
Testing Workshops with Schools
To ensure that the functions and content of arolsen school appeal to young people and are easy to use, selected school classes had the opportunity to test the platform. For example, a 9th grade class from Wilhelms Olbers Oberschule in Bremen (photo) tested the first beta version of our new module Suspicious: A Landscape of Crime. With Vicky as their virtual guide, students can explore the grounds of the former Ohrdruf concentration camp in this module. The site is usually closed to the public, but students can immerse themselves in its history online.
The systematic involvement of young people at every stage along the way – from brainstorming topics and formats to refining the mechanics of the mini games – has been central to the process of developing our education platform and will remain so in future. We put together an interdisciplinary “development team” made up of educational experts and began to approach schools.
Interview with Birthe Pater, Head of Education at the Arolsen Archives
37
workshops on “arolsen school” with pupils and students
33
events for teachers and educators
Support for Teachers in the Classroom
“arolsen school” is a flexible, ready-made product that teachers can use immediately without having to do much reading or other preparation in advance. These resources make it easy for them to address social issues in the classroom. The education platform holds open office hours that give teachers the opportunity to ask questions, take part in training courses, and connect with others.
#everynamecounts: More Volunteers than Ever Before
Nearly 10,000 Volunteers Join the Challenge
In 2024, #everynamecounts once again launched a special challenge to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27. Nearly 10,000 volunteers joined forces to digitize documents containing over 30,000 names belonging to victims of Nazi persecution. Some people worked non-stop two days in a row and transcribed information from almost 500 cards, while others devoted a few hours of their time to the project every evening for a week. Many school classes took part too.
This time the documents the volunteers had to digitize for the challenge came from the “emigration card file” in the State Archives of Bremen. This collection contains a wealth of information on the fates of displaced persons – survivors of Nazi persecution and deportation who found themselves stranded far from home at the end of the war. Most of them were liberated concentration camp prisoners or forced laborers. They were in Bremen while they waited to depart for a new home.
The players of SC Freiburg football club lent high-profile support to #everynamecounts on Holocaust Remembrance Day 2024. At the Bundesliga match against TSG Hoffenheim on January 20, the club’s players sent a clear message by running onto the pitch wearing #everynamecounts sweatshirts. There was also a pre-match, on-pitch interview with Floriane Azoulay, the Director of the Arolsen Archives, and Sonja Pösel, Project Manager for #everynamecounts. They told the fans in the stadium about the initiative and encouraged them to take part. The women’s team also gave enthusiastic support to the crowdsourcing campaign and helped recruit volunteers.
It’s important to draw attention to the fact that this terrible persecution took place. And that it must never be allowed to happen again. We reach so many young fans through football. So everyone needs to speak out and stand up for the right values.
Hasret Kayıkçı, captain of SC Freiburg
hours of their time were donated by the volunteers during the challenge
#everynamecounts at the Bundestag
Young people from four Berlin schools joined us on June 25, 2024, to present our crowdsourcing initiative in the German Bundestag. Many MPs and Bundestag staff took the opportunity to digitize documents – and remember victims of Nazi persecution. Julia Klöckner (CDU) was one of those who took part. Here you can see one of the students showing her how the crowdsourcing platform works.
New Promotional Materials
#everynamecounts plans to strengthen its presence at days of action and other public events in future. To present the campaign in public spaces, the campaign team designed a range of inviting, accessible, and interactive promotional materials last year. Roll-up banners, exhibition stands, and mobile digital input stations with direct access to the crowdsourcing platform make it easier and more enjoyable to get involved.
Commemorating Those Who Were Expatriated
In November 2024, the Arolsen Archives and the German National Library’s “German Exile Archive 1933-1945” announced a new #everynamecounts challenge. This time, the volunteers helped to digitize the documents in the so-called expatriation card file, which contains information about tens of thousands of people who were stripped of their German citizenship by the Nazis. Many prominent figures were affected, including physicist and Nobel Prize winner Albert Einstein, who was expatriated by the German authorities on March 24, 1934.
650,000
documents were processed for #everynamecounts in 2024
68,000
volunteers took part in the crowdsourcing project in 2024
Diverse Social Media Content
The Arolsen Archives have their own social media channel “Kein Thema! Geschichte ist jetzt” (literal translation: Not an Issue! History Is Now), which reaches tens of thousands of young people on YouTube and TikTok every day. In 2024, we launched three new series that provide information about the history of National Socialism, persecution, and racism – they have been very well received. Across all our social media accounts, we noted a significant rise in the number of people who followed us in 2024, while the number of interactions doubled in comparison with the previous year. We kept a critical eye on developments on “X” and countered disinformation there by posting good content. However, due to the increasingly anti-democratic direction the platform was heading in, we left “X” at the end of 2024 and have since joined Bluesky and Threads.
New True Crime Series
“Verbrechen Vergessen – Wie es nach 1945 weiterging” (Forgotten Crimes – What Happened After 1945) focuses on crimes committed in the aftermath of the Nazi era: The topics covered so far include the sluggish investigations into Nazi crimes, the persistence of antisemitism in post-war society, and the fight for all the various victim groups to be recognized. Susi Siegert and Lilith Roska host this series. Susi also has her own channel “keine.erinnerungskultur,” where she educates people about the Nazi era. Lilith works for the Arolsen Archives.
impressions across all platforms in 2024 (the number of times a post is displayed)
Seven posts a day and thousands of interactions
In addition to the content we produce for our “Kein Thema” channel, the Arolsen Archives also publish posts on a range of themes: we share a number of search appeals every year, tell the stories of persecutees, report on their work, and draw attention to contemporary forms of racism and discrimination. Some of our posts go viral and reach tens of thousands of people extremely quickly — like the search appeal for Emil Hirschmann that we posted in March 2024, which racked up nearly 180,000 views on Instagram.
2,400
posts on all platforms (2024)
16,000
new followers (2024)
#StolenMemory Returns Items to over 1,000 Families
First Item Returned in Greece
A small number of the personal belongings stored in the archive belonged to Greek victims of Nazi persecution. We found the family of one of these objects’ owners for the first time in 2024. Angeliki Nikou Kontogeorgiou received her grandfather Vasilios Kontogeorgiou’s watch at the Greek Embassy in Berlin in June. During the Second World War, he was held as a political prisoner in a number of concentration camps in Germany. The Nazis confiscated his watch while he was there. Angeliki was 11 years old when her grandfather died, and she can remember him well. He had spoken to her of his imprisonment.
Australian Travels to Spain to Receive Effects
Manuel Montes traveled from Australia to Madrid in October 2024 – a distance of 17,000 km as the crow flies – to receive the last personal belongings of his great-granduncle Gabriel Álvarez Arjona, a former inmate of Neuengamme concentration camp. When #StolenMemory volunteers Jesús Rodríguez and Isabel Martínez from the Stolpersteine Madrid initiative set out to trace Gabriel Álvarez Arjona’s family, they found out that his relatives have been living in Australia since the 1960s.
Thanks to the support of dedicated volunteers around the world, #StolenMemory has already returned the personal effects of victims of Nazi persecution to hundreds of families worldwide. In November 2024, the project team reached a major milestone when they returned personal effects for the 1,000th time since the campaign was launched in 2016.
families had items returned to them in 2024
Campaign Returns Effects in Poland
On August 1, 2024, 80 years had passed since the start of the Warsaw Uprising, the day when the Polish Home Army rose up against the German occupiers. A few months before this anniversary, the Arolsen Archives launched a campaign titled “The Warsaw Uprising. 100 Untold Stories” in an effort to trace the families of 100 victims whose personal effects are stored in the archive. Items were returned to over 20 families at ceremonies held in Warsaw. The search has continued ever since – with the help of many volunteers.
BohaterON Prize for #StolenMemory
In November 2024, the Arolsen Archives received the prestigious Polish history prize BohaterON in recognition of their campaign in connection with the Warsaw Uprising and of their #StolenMemory project. The Arolsen Archives were the first non-Polish organization ever to be honored with this prize, which has been awarded in the name of the Warsaw Insurgents since 2019.
Successful TV Campaign to Find Polish Families
Efforts to trace the relatives of persecutees with the aim of returning personal effects sometimes come to nothing despite much hard work and assistance from many volunteers. To address this problem, the tracing team and a journalist from Deutsche Welle came up with the idea of broadcasting search appeals on television in Poland. The news program “Teleexpress” aired a search appeal once a week for four months. A number of people came forward with tips as a result, and eight more families were found.
Many Items Returned in France
StolenMemory also receives support from a large number of volunteers in France. They find several families every year and sometimes organize for items to be returned in person. Patrice Pauly is one of the volunteers who has been helping us search for families in France for many years. In the summer of 2024, filmmaker Laurent Kouchner made a moving film about the personal effects of resistance fighter Camille Labrux. When Patrice found his grandson, Camille’s wallet could be returned to him at last.
Exhibitions Across Europe
Four #StolenMemory exhibition containers toured Germany, Poland, Belgium, and France in 2024. They stopped off at a total of 46 locations to showcase the personal effects of former prisoners and share their stories of the persecution. Cooperative projects with local initiatives and organizations such as schools and associations give local people the opportunity to work with biographies and documents and search for traces of the families themselves. Stationary poster exhibitions – some held in Spain, for example – also help us find families.
Awards for #LastSeen
The #LastSeen image atlas won the prestigious Grimme Online Award in the category “Knowledge and Education” in October 2024. The digital image platform developed in partnership with the Arolsen Archives documents historical photographs of Nazi deportations. In this film clip of the award ceremony, the jury explains what most impressed them about the project:
Best Digital Project
LastSeen had already won the DigAMus Award 2024 a few months earlier, in May 2024. This award recognizes the best digital projects from museums and similar institutions. Chosen from over 110 entries, #LastSeen won in the “Apps and Games” category. By the end of 2024, the partners involved in #LastSeen (Selma Stern Center for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg, USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research, Public History Munich, Memorial and Educational Site House of the Wannsee Conference, and the Arolsen Archives) had collected more than 600 photographs.
Help for Ukraine
Aid Network for Survivors of Nazi Persecution
The Arolsen Archives have been actively involved in the Aid Network for Survivors of Nazi Persecution in Ukraine since 2022. We are involved in collecting donations to help people who survived Nazi persecution and their families. The aid network cooperates with civil society partners at local level – for example with Lyuba Danylenko (in the center of the photo), who coordinates the sponsorship program in Kyiv. Sponsorship helps people like Leonid Karpez and Valentina Gretschka (in front of Lyuba in the photo) to access food and medicine.
317,000
euros were donated through the aid network (2024)
200
sponsorships were organized for survivors of Nazi persecution (2024)
Digitization of Micro-Archives
In summer 2024, the Arolsen Archives and the Ukrainian NGO After Silence launched a joint project to digitize small collections of documents related to Nazi persecution in Ukraine. These “micro-archives” are scattered across the country and face serious threats due to the Russian war of aggression. Local museums, public initiatives, and private collectors are helping to identify and scan these valuable collections. Once they have been systematically cataloged, the documents are made available in the online archive for private research and, even more importantly, for research and educational work.
New Documents from Ukrainian State Archives
In 2024, the Arolsen Archives added digitized collections from the Vinnytsia and Kirovohrad state archives to their database. These new additions consist of over 25,000 scans of documents concerning the fate of forced laborers who were deported to the German Reich from what is now Ukraine. They include letters (postcards with photographs) that these people sent home from captivity. In addition, our archivists have acquired several other Ukrainian collections related to prisoners of war and forced laborers. Staff are now gradually adding them to the database and the online archive.
