Editorial
Dear Readers,
With the conclusion of 2022 – an intense year marked for us primarily by the 80th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference – we have decided to select a socially controversial topic each year that we can integrate into and reflect on in our work.
Since the 79th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference in January 2021, we have been exploring how memorial sites and other historical and civic education institutions can draw more focused attention to everyday forms of antisemitism. We have found that many aspects of antisemitism and work critical of antisemitism relate to the work that we perform at the House of the Wannsee Conference Memorial and Educational Site. For this reason, we have chosen antisemitism as the accompanying theme for 2023.
What makes this topic so important to the House of the Wannsee Conference Memorial and Educational Site?
Until now, antisemitism has influenced our work primarily as a historical phenomenon, as a thing of the past. We have not sufficiently focused on current manifestations of antisemitism. We therefore wish to address the pervasiveness of antisemitism today and demonstrate the connection between historical and contemporary antisemitism.
We will be organising training sessions for the memorial staff as well as public conferences and symposiums that will highlight different aspects of antisemitism as it relates to educational work, public relations and research. We have already begun with a small workshop exhibition exploring this topic on the second floor of our building.
This newsletter offers a small preview of this exhibit and other aspects of our current work.
We look forward to exchanging ideas on these and other topics in the coming year!
Sincerely,
Deborah Hartmann
Director of the Memorial and Educational Site House of the Wannsee Conference