Jewish Memoirs –
a Network for the Leipzig Urban History
News
June 2019
In the programme of the Jewish Week 2019:
26.6., 2 pm.: STEP BY STEP – MEMORIES OF JEWISH LIFE IN LEIPZIGS CITYSCAPE: THE CARLEBACH SCHOOL
28.6., 4 pm: STEP BY STEP – MEMORIES OF JEWISH LIFE IN LEIPZIGS CITYSCAPE: LEIPZIG'S LARGE SYNAGOGUES
With the kind support of the Cultural Office of the City of Leipzig.
2019
In the new year, above all we work with multipliers and inform about possibilities to organize their own workshops in the context of "ReMembering". For teachers we offer trainings. If you are interested, please contact us by e-mail.
December 2018
After an eventful year with four workshops, the Network Day, the revision of our database and with ups and downs (among other things in the efforts to finance our project), we say goodbye to take a break. We thank everyone who supported us and everyone who worked with us, the participants from Leipzig and the many guests, it is nice that you were part of it, it is nice to have met you! Now almost 70 audio plays remind us of events in the city's history, told from the perspective of former fellow citizens of Jewish origin and their descendants, and we would like to invite you to use our website with these contents also in the context of educational offers.
As recently suggested in a workshop for teachers and students of history didactics, we encourage feedback and the realisation of further workshops in the responsibility and organisation of schools themselves, a concern which we are also happy to support in an advising role. The presentation of the network of those who deal with Jewish history in Leipzig, in a first version online since November, may make it easier for interested persons to orient themselves and to access material, be it for the preparation of lessons, a visit to Leipzig or online research.
There is more opportunity to look back on our website (workshops) or on Facebook, however, we are already looking ahead and wish you a good time until the turn of the year and a happy and courageous start into 2019.
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September 2018
After a long break (as is so often the case, silence can be deceptive; the weeks were busy) we write to you with news about the project. At the beginning of the month we started our workshop “Double lesson”, a cooperation with Radio Blau and sponsored by the federal programme “Demokratie leben! (Live democracy!)” as well as by the Free State of Saxony and the city of Leipzig. We will publish all information about the programme and the sponsors and the contributions of the participating young people online and will be happy about interest in our work.
At the same time the preparations for the Network Day, which will take place in the Ariowitsch-Haus on 8.11.18, are continuing. We are happy about the support of the Holger Koppe Foundation, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Saxony as well as the Saxon Memorial Foundation, three sponsors which make the realisation possible in the planned extent.
The first item on the programme is a workshop for teachers and student teachers, registrations for which are still possible until 5 October. From 2 p.m. onwards, lectures and project presentations will follow, thematically picking up on the so-called Polenaktion and the November pogroms, events that took place exactly 80 years ago. We would also expressly like to invite initiatives and projects that are committed to combating anti-Semitism and racism and to strengthening democracy to give a short presentation of their work – please contact us by 30 September via projekt@remembering-leipzig.de so that we can plan the course of the programme.
From 4:45 p.m. we invite you to the panel discussion “Look away, look at it, look around: Culture of Remembrance Today” and hope for a lively exchange on questions that seem more urgent than ever to us all.
Further details on the Network Day will be available online shortly. Already today we would like to draw your attention to the following “(Memorial Demonstration - Remembering - For an Open Society)”, organised by a broad alliance of project groups, institutions and private individuals who have joined forces to form the Initiative 9 November, in which we are also happy to be involved.
The demonstration starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Ariowitsch-Haus and leads to the monument of the liberal community synagogue on Gottschedstraße. We will provide further information online soon.
May 2018
Currently we are preparing our second workshop of the year. We invited contemporary witnesses and their families, who will be here within the framework of the city's official visit programme for former Leipzig citizens of Jewish origin, to “Geschichten brauchen Menschen, die sie erzählen / Stories Need People to Tell Them”. The workshop starts on 30.5. with pupils of the Musikalisch-Sportliches Gymnasium. From 1.6. we meet the guests and look forward to two workshop days together as well as a discussion with contemporary witnesses. The results of our work will probably be online from 5.6. in the evening.
On 18.6 the participants of the workshop “Entrechtet über Nacht /Deprived of rights overnight” will be in the recording studio and by the end of June at the latest we will publish their micro audio pieces on the events of autumn 1938, which have been produced in joint work since February, among others on the families Alterthum, Bamberger, Kalter and Bruckmann.
Furthermore we are preparing the Network Day on 8.11., for which we have received many confirmations already. You will find current information online soon. And for all those of you who are waiting for it: By November we would like to also realise the online representation of the network. This will be a main focus when developing the data base in the next weeks and months.
As always, we would like to point out the possibility of supporting our project with a donation and thank all those who already support the project (in so many ways)!
Note: We are busy with a virtual move, so it may temporarily interfere with the map view of "ReMembering" - we are working on the problem!
March 2018
We have not been idle but filed four negative grant statements away and looked for possibilities how to proceed this year. These include new ideas for cooperation and new grant applications, which we have now initiated. Behind us are two project presentations and the theatre workshop “Theater macht Geschichte (Theatre makes history)”, organised by the foundation “Erinnerung, Verantwortung, Zukunft (Remembrance, Responsibility, Future)”. We developed the idea for a play and took part in a competition, our workshop “Entrechtet über Nacht (Deprived of rights overnight)” sponsored by the Holger Koppe Foundation is fully booked – we are happy – and with our plans we have already arrived in the warmer season. From the end of May onwards, a workshop with guests from the city's official visit programme for former Jewish citizens of Leipzig will be held in cooperation with the Department for International Cooperation (City of Leipzig) and the Musikalisch-Sportliches Gymnasium. The organisation of the Network Day, which will take place on 8 November in the Ariowitsch House, has already begun. We kindly ask interested people to note the date. Furthermore, we would like to draw attention to the work of Daniel Ristau, who under Bruch/Stücke publishes an extremely worthwhile collection of articles about the November pogroms in Saxony, events that took place 80 years ago.
January 2018
"Deprived of rights overnight" – in our first workshop of the new year, which starts on 5 February, we remind of the events of the so-called Polenaktion (action against Polish Jews) and the Pogrom Night in Leipzig, which took place 80 years ago. The workshop will take place once a month on Mondays 5 pm to 7.30 pm in the Ariowitsch House; on 18 June, the last date, we will be in the Bromologic recording studio to record selected memories of contemporary witnesses. Further information can be found on the workshop flyer; please send your registration to projekt@remembering-leipzig.de.
We would also like to draw your attention to an event on the eve of the commemoration day for the victims of National Socialism. On 26 January, the media group of the association for the reintegration of psychosocially impaired people (Verein zur Wiedereingliederung psychosozial geschädigter Menschen e.V.) will be showing a film about research into the Stolperstein project for Walter Handschuh. The Bürgerbewegung e.V. archive will inform about the overall project and we will present our work and the programme for the next months. We can be found from 5 pm to 8 pm at the churchyard of St. Nicholas Church (Nikolaikirche); come along, we are looking forward to meeting you!
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December 2017 The work results of the first workshops are online, more than 30 short audio plays are now available on the map. So far, we have outlined the story of 17 former Leipzig citizens with a selection of their memories and information about their lives. All entries can be complemented, we are looking forward to your feedback and your cooperation.
We would like to thank all of you who supported our project this year and look forward to working together with you in 2018!
October 2017 In November, a workshop on the community history (15 to 17 November), which takes place from 4 pm to 8 pm, is addressed to adults as well. +++ We will present our first results in the Ariowitsch-Haus (hall) on 8 November 2017, 6 pm – we would like to invite you and ask you to forward our news to interested persons! +++ We would also like to thank you for the response so far of the questionnaires on the network representation and would like to encourage further feedback – we will be happy to answer your questions.
September 2017 We would like to remind you of the registration deadline of our first workshop (5.10.), which will take place from 9 to 13 October as a holiday offer for pupils aged 14 and over in the Ariowitsch-Haus and at the Bromologic recording studio.
And one last thing – donations:
ReMembering relies on donations despite the previous commitment of sponsors and supporters. We are therefore grateful for the further spread of our idea, our concern and the link with the possibilities for donating – thanks!
August 2017 We are pleased to announce the support of the Dr. Buhmann Stiftung für interreligiöse Verständigung (foundation for interreligious understanding) for our project, an appreciated encouragement for our work! +++ We are currently planning “Carlebach to go!” – our first workshop as a holiday offer for pupils from grade 9 on.
From 9th - 13th October, we would like to work with the juveniles on the subject of “Childhood and youth in Leipzig” (from 1900 to approx. 1942); the famous rabbi and school’s founder – mentioned in the title – will play a leading role.
9th - 13th October 2017, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
July 2017 We are pleased to announce the support of the Ostdeutsche Sparkassenstiftung (East German Savings Banks Foundation) for the “Ephraim Carlebach” project which we proposed in cooperation with the Ariowitsch-Haus e.V. and Dr. Marco Helbig.
We will engage with young people especially within workshops, we are looking forward to the work, and will publish our first results on our website in November.
Friday, 23 June 2017, 4 – approximately 6 pm
„ReMembering – Jewish Memoirs. A Network for the Leipzig Urban History – Project Presentation in the course of the Jewish Week.
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (lecture room)
Deutscher Platz 1, 04103 Leipzig
How can we keep the memory of the events of persecution, expulsion and murder of the former Jewish population of Leipzig alive in a future without contemporary witnesses? How can we tell future generations about the once rich Jewish history of Leipzig and how can we react to today's phenomena of latent anti-Semitism?
We present our project on digital city history, which focuses on autobiographical sources, illustrates the connection of the multi-faceted Jewish history with the history of Leipzig, encourages the self-reflexion of users, and sensitises young people in particular to dealing with historical topics. In the course of the presentation, we will explain how we work and inform about the status of the project and the possibilities of participation. We would also like to invite the audience to work on an example together and to give voice to a source.
An event of EnterHistory! in cooperation with the German Exile Archive 1933-1945 of the German National Library.
Admission free; donations are welcome
Idea
The idea is first a database. The database contains data. The data are biographical; the biographies are stories. The stories come from former Jewish citizens of the city; they are retold by young people and adults today. The present lends its voice to the past to be heard in the future.
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“ReMembering” starts in 2017 as an initiative project and links digital city history with educational work. An online presence with a map is being created. There, the places are marked for which memoirs exist or research material and micro audio pieces invite to listen to people and to get to know their stories.
The pilot in 2017
By November 2017, we developed and realised the idea so far that we could go online with the first version of the website on the occasion of the anniversary of the Crystal Night (9.11.). Biographical text fragments relate to places in the urban space. They can be listened to as audio files or read as a document. Accompanying texts allow a classification of what is heard, further links an in-depth study of various topics. As an example, first entries to the topics “community history” (for the 170th anniversary) and “childhood and youth in Leipzig” were developed.
The networking of the various participants who have been dealing with Jewish history in Leipzig and who we invite to incorporate their work results into the project or to link to them is fundamental to the success of the project. “ReMembering” will also be a network in this sense, one that bundles resources, shows sources and publishes research findings.
Motivation
Conceptually, with “ReMembering” we react to the fact that in the future, witnesses of the events in the last century, among which especially the events of persecution, expulsion and murder of the former Jewish population of Leipzig are to be mentioned, will be missing. And we react to today's phenomena of latent anti-Semitism, which is a figure of currently 13-20% of the population in East Germany. “ReMembering”, however, focusses not only on the historical period of the time after 1933 but rather pays attention to the entire Jewish history of the city.
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The resulting audio material is based on autobiographical sources, on diaries, letters and other documents. They show the connection of the multifaceted Jewish history with the city history of Leipzig. We also aim at encouraging the self-reflexion of the users of this online offer, and we want to sensitise young people in particular to dealing with historical issues. We want them to lend their voice to the people of the past.
“ReMembering” will be a network that draws from the possibilities of the new media and serves as information. It is addressed to everyone who is interested in city and especially Jewish history and researching it. At the same time, the project keeps the memory of the former Jewish fellow citizens alive; we would like to introduce especially young people to the related topics and confront them with life stories. In this context, we find the approach of working out the everyday on the basis of autobiographical sources, of considering this in the historical context, and of tracing the parallels in today's experience of the young people, as especially important. Finally, one objective is that young people understand and experience history as a process in which each individual consciously or unconsciously participates.
And summarised:
In a future without witnesses of the events from 1933 onwards, against the background of globalisation and with a view to the opportunities offered by the use of the Internet for a historical educational demand, “ReMembering” would like to have an impact on reality, to be developed in the future and to contribute to the perception of our responsibility for what will one day be called history.
Realization
What is being created, what are we planning?
remembering-leipzig.de – The NetWork!
remembering-leipzig.de becomes the online address for the Jewish history of Leipzig and is online since November 2017 with its first content. The central design element of the web presence is a map on which audio files are linked with personal memoirs and places. For each audio file, contextual material in German and English is available. Various filter functions allow, among other things, the search for time periods, topics and names; research results are presented, people are connected, links facilitate further research.
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RememberMe – Discover Jewish history in the urban space by yourself!
With RememberMe, an app is created which retrieves and reproduces the corresponding content about the city space based on the location data of the user. You can get information on important places of Jewish history, hear micro audiopieces, compile your own audio walks and recommend individual listening stations or topics.
ReMembering – One memory, one voice!
The central contents, the micro audiopieces with personal memoirs, are developed and produced during workshops. We are working with young people from grade 9 (and 11) onwards and also with adults.
Outlook
remembering-leipzig.de is a network with contents growing according to the Wiki principle. Registered researchers can publish their own contributions to topics.
Currently, contributions to the following topics are planned:
trade fair history, community history, music history, art and theatre, fur trade, publishing, judiciary, lawyers’ history, physicians, Jewish proletariat, youth associations, sports clubs, childhood in Leipzig, in Leipzig in love, short stories, Jewish humour
exile and underground, deportation
