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Germany Launches Online Database of Places of Remembrance

21.02.2012

The German Federal Agency for Civic Education launched a database for memorial sites and initiatives in coordination with the commemoration activities held on 27 January for International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The database currently lists 219 sites of memory, with additional sites continually added.  It includes a range of facilities and initiatives that commemorate the victims of National Socialism, such as memorials, museums, documentation centers, and educational programs.  The database also offers new forms of remembrance and learning, as well as online services and links to survivor and youth groups.

Each site is presented by a short text with references to educational services, contacts, directions, and opening hours.  The Federal Agency for Civil Education is also working on a mobile phone app version of the database that can be used when visiting sites.

The database hopes to provide inspiration for historical and political educational work and be an impetus for further study of the topic.  The range of sites presented demonstrates the diverse landscape of memory and how it has changed over time.  It also shows that many places of remembrance are sustained by local community volunteers and that civic engagement is vital to ensure that the memory of these sites retains a vivid cultural role.

The Datenbank Erinnerungsorte für die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus is available in German at:  www.bpb.de/erinnerungsorte.