Creating a Digital Culture of Remembrance

As the 35^th annual Holocaust Education Week drew to a close in Toronto, Ontario, more than 900 people attended a commemoration of the November Pogrom which took place at the Shaarei Shomayim congregation, the keynote address explored how synagogues destroyed during the November Pogrom are brought to life in contemporary Germany through digital media.

Dr. Marc Grellert of the Darmstadt Technical University, Germany delivered the keynote address and discussed the 'Synagogues in Germany—A Virtual Reconstruction' project which began in 1994. At that time, architecture students including Marc Grellert at the Technical University of Darmstadt learned of an arson attack on the synagogue in Lübeck, and responded against antisemitism by using their skill to virtually reconstruct synagogues destroyed during the National Socialist period. Through this ongoing project, synagogues in Berlin, Darmstadt, Dresden, Frankfurt, Hanover, Cologne, Leipzig, Munich, and Nuremberg (among others) have been virtually reconstructed, recording the loss of communities and culture, and testifying to the historical and architectural importance of the buildings, once part of German cityscapes and culture. The project was expanded to include an interactive online archive of more than 2,200 synagogues that were closed, desecrated or destroyed during the Nazi regime. An exhibition of

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Now a professor of architecture, Dr. Marc Grellert explained how this remarkable project offers new generations opportunities to understand, interpret, and make history relevant through new forms of technology, defining the culture of memory for the 21st century. More information about the project can be found here.

More than 35,000 people participated in this year’s annual Holocaust Education Week activities organized by the Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre.

Images courtesy of the TU Darmstadt. Picture (right): Image of a virtual reconstruction.