End-of-year newsletter 2025
The year 2025 was marked by commemorations of the end of World War II and the liberation of the concentration camps 80 years ago. For us, this was a time of many inspiring encounters.
Hundreds of relatives of former prisoners and representatives of international prisoners' associations attended the commemorative events at the beginning of May and shaped the diverse accompanying program. Commemorative events were held in Neustadt in Holstein on May 2nd, and on May 3rd, many international guests gathered for the memorial service. At the central memorial service in Hamburg, which took place on May 3rd at the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial in front of over 1,000 guests, 97-year-old survivor Helga Melmed made a very urgent appeal for humanity and charity. In his speech, the then incumbent Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz emphasized the importance of remembering Nazi crimes for supporting democracy. The subsequent commemorative ceremonies by international delegations from France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, and for persecuted homosexuals were also impressive. On May 4, we inaugurated a new memorial plaque at the international memorial in Neuengamme: the round memorial stone lists 70 names of countries that exist today and from which prisoners of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp came. Also on May 4th, we opened our doors to a program of civil society remembrance initiatives, a format that we will continue in May 2026. At the “Space to Remember”, over 40 family members of former concentration camp prisoners from different countries came together for the printing workshop, the public poster presentation and the joint poster-making, sharing their stories, printing, posting and commemorating together – with many touching moments and encounters. In the event „Mémoire à quatre voix“, relatives of concentration camp prisoners and Nazi perpetrators engaged in dialogue with. This special format was documented on DVD and online in cooperation with the Friends of the Concentration Camp Memorial.
Diverse Remembrance for the Present Day (brochure, pdf)
In 2025, we were able to address important aspects of the confrontation with National Socialism in several exhibitions: Our exhibition “Ausgeraubt vor der Deportation” (Plundered even before deportation) on the robbery of Jews, Roma, and Sinti was opened in Hamburg City Hall and then shown in several Hamburg tax offices and in Berlin. The graphic novel exhibition “Picturing the Unimaginable” focused on the fates of those persecuted and was based on a collaboration between the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, the Kamp Westerbork Memorial in the Netherlands, and the Kazerne Dossin Memorial in Belgium. An outdoor exhibition on the rescue operation by the “White Buses” and the exhibition “Neu gesehen. Multimedia-Arbeiten über dänische Zeichner im KZ Neuengamme” (New Perspectives: Multimedia Works on Danish Artists in the Neuengamme Concentration Camp) are the result of a German-Danish cooperation project on World War II. We also hosted the traveling exhibition “Trotzdem da!” (Nevertheless There!), conceived by the Sandbostel Memorial, on children from forbidden relationships with forced laborers, and the exhibition #StolenMemory by the Arolsen Archives.
Our publications also looked beyond Germany: "Repressionspolitik und Deportationspraxis im besetzten Frankreich 1940–1944. Akteure, Feindbilder, Verfolgtengruppen“ (Repressive Policies and Deportation Practices in Occupied France 1940–1944: Actors, Enemy Images, Persecuted Groups) explores Nazi terror in France, while ”Geschichtspolitische Umbrüche im postsozialistischen Europa" (Historical-Political Upheavals in Post-Socialist Europe) examines the effects of socio-political upheavals in the successor states of the former Soviet Union and former Yugoslavia on remembrance culture and memorial work.
In our educational work, we continued to focus on existing priorities and adopted new approaches: The project “What voice do we have?” aims to involve the descendants of victims of Nazi persecution in a participatory manner. The group has now developed educational materials that are available online and can be used by various groups. We have been working intensively on ways to make memorial site visits accessible to families with children under the age of 12 and families. We will continue to pursue this focus in 2026.
I would also like to take a look “behind the scenes” of our archival work. In addition to the approximately 2,000 written inquiries from relatives of former prisoners of the Neuengamme concentration camp, as well as from the media and researchers. Further, important estates, personal documents, and objects arrived at the archive this year. Most recently, Martine Letterie, chairwoman of the Amicale Internationale Neuengamme, handed over a suitcase that her grandfather Martinus Letterie had with him when he was deported to the Neuengamme Concentration Camp.
The diverse work of the Public Relations and Social Media department continues to be innovative, creatively exploring the possibilities of digital and multimedia historical education and the productive use of social media platforms. Examples of this include the #GeradeJetzt campaign, the online lecture series on “Artificial Intelligence in Remembrance Work,” and, of course, our extremely successful TikTok channel. In this area, our foundation has developed an international reputation.
Progress is slow with the renovation project and the redesign of three exhibitions at the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial. We hired an architect in 2025 and have now begun planning, but the projects will not be implemented until the next few years.
As an inner-city location for networking with civil society, the Stadthaus Historical Site hosted many collaborative events in 2025, including a series of talks by the Association of Victims of Nazi Persecution on Hamburg resistance fighters. In the project showcase, the ‘Geschichtomat’ of the Institute for the History of German Jews, the Rom and Cinti Union e.V., the Stolperstein Initiative Hamburg, the group “Children of the Resistance,” and the Jehovah's Witnesses presented their remembrance work.
The Poppenbüttel Memorial has launched a new online exhibition in English on the Hamburg women's satellite camps on its website “Fragmented Memories.”
The denk.mal Hannoverscher Bahnhof project team used the renewed delay in the development of the planned documentation center for numerous other important projects. Together with the #LastSeen project, three photos documenting the deportations in Hamburg in the fall of 1941 were identified for the first time. This year's open-air exhibition in Lohsepark, held against the backdrop of the 80th anniversary of the end of the war, focused on the often difficult return to Hamburg and combined quotes from contemporary witnesses with contemporary drawings by the artist Paula Mittrowann under the title “Ich war zurückgekommen. Allein” (I had returned. Alone). A particularly touching event was the inauguration of the Fruchtschuppen C memorial in Hamburg's HafenCity, which commemorates the deportation of Sinti and Roma.
We are delighted that Hamburg memorial initiatives met again in 2025 to exchange their knowledge about places and figures of the resistance. With the St. Nikolai Memorial, we launched the “Voices of the Liberated” campaign with readings at various locations and on social media, in which many of the memorial initiatives actively participated.
Not only did the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial and the Stadthaus historical site recorded an increase in visitor numbers in 2025, but also the other memorial sites of our foundation. Numerous relatives traveled to the impressive memorial event organized by the Association of Children of Bullenhuser Damm on April 24th at the Thalia Theater, the highlight of which was a discussion with contemporary witnesses, sisters Andra and Tatiana Bucci. The Bullenhuser Damm Memorial now also features a small photo exhibition documenting the commitment of Henri Morgenstern, cousin of the murdered Jacqueline Morgenstern. The exhibition was created by a volunteer from the Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienst (Reconciliation Service for Peace) and thus shows a small excerpt from the diverse work of the volunteers in our foundation. In addition, at the site of the former Neuengamme concentration camp satellite camp on Spaldingstrasse, in cooperation with the Stolperstein Initiative and the current owner of the building, the exhibition on the satellite camp was renewed and a Stolperstein was laid.
At the end of this brief review of the year, I would also like to mention a few aspects that are weighing on our work: Like other memorial sites, we are feeling increasing pressure. Firstly, we are experiencing massive conflicts and political shifts in the present, partly as a result of Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine and the war in the Gaza Strip following Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, as well as the rise of authoritarian regimes worldwide. To addition to this, memorial sites depend on support from society as a whole for their future-oriented development and renewal. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all individuals, groups, and institutions in government and civil society who are committed to active remembrance and a democratic society, including in Hamburg, including, not least, the relatives of former victims of Nazi persecution.
I would like to conclude this review of the year, as we always do, by remembering our companions and loved ones whom we had to say goodbye to this year. We would like to remember the deceased here, the survivors of concentration camps Livia Fränkel, Dita Kraus, Natalia Radtschenko, and the supporters of our memorial work Brigitte Alexander, Franke Tjetse Siegfried Letterie, Jan Adriaan de Muijnck, and Peggy Parnass.
On behalf of all of our employees, I wish you a happy and healthy start to the new year 2026, filled with positive thoughts and plans.
Hamburg, December 2025
Prof. Dr. Oliver von Wrochem,
Chairman of the Foundation and Director of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial