Nazi Era: Remembrance in Virtual Worlds

Created: 06/15/2022, 08:00

By: Hans Moritz

At the beginning of a research project: The young people from Erding and Dorfen visited the Schöneweide Memorial to Forced Laborers near Berlin.

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It is thanks to the historian Giulio Salvati, who grew up in Erding, that the National Socialist chapter of forced labor in Erdinger Land is being dealt with.

Now he can involve young people as part of a new, international research project.

Erding - That could give the local museum landscape a modernization boost beyond the actual topic.

"Onboarding Memories - Digital Memory Spaces for Nazi Forced Labor" is the name of the project, which is being backed by the European Academy Berlin and the European Schuman Center, among others.

“Because of my research, the academy asked me if I could nominate young people for the program,” reports Salvati.

He found what he was looking for at the Korbinian-Aigner high school in Erding and at the Dorfen high school: Konrad Thees and Georg Bauernfeind from Erding, as well as Fridolin Karger, Laura Stürzl and Pius Gruber from Dorfen.

The aim is to research and present forced labor on site and to develop a virtual museum using VR glasses.

The complex technology sets (“History Maker Kit”) are made available to the young people.

"It's about a digital journey of remembrance," explains Salvati.

After all, 20 million people were exploited and enslaved during the Nazi era.

The aim of the project is to make the fates in digital exhibition spaces visible worldwide.

In Erding, Salvati laid the roots for this together with other historically interested people - among other things with the digitization of the index cards of the forced laborers from the camp in Eichenkofen, for example (we reported).

Participants from Germany, France, Poland and Lithuania are involved in the youth project.

A first workshop took place in Berlin in May, and the next is planned for July in Metz, France.

The project will be completed in November in Poland.

Karger, who is in eleventh grade, says he was immediately interested in the project: "We learn a lot about the concentration camps, but learn less about the people who had contact with the local population," he reports.

He was also interested in combining history with modern technology.

Because at the beginning there is a 360-degree camera recording of an original location.

After that, a virtual museum will be filled with pictures, videos, maps and podcasts.

Thees, who is in tenth grade, admits “that I have problems with the culture of remembrance.

Rather, we have to work with our history and develop it further, as is happening in Eichenkofen, for example, where a place of remembrance is only now being created".

The much-quoted "Never again" must be filled with content.

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In Berlin, the international young researchers met for the first time and got to know the project and the technology.

The forced laborer memorial in Schöneweide was visited together.

Karger wants to work with videos and depict family stories.

He has already contacted Meinhard Schröder, who runs the history workshop in Tegel.

What the five young historians are working on will be part of a European exhibition.

The final meeting is to take place in Poland.

Originally, Lithuania was chosen as the location, but due to the Baltics' proximity to the Ukraine war, this is currently not possible.

Salvati can well imagine that digital technology will also find its way into Erdinger museums and that virtual tours and exhibitions will then also be possible.

Meanwhile, Salvati and the Pax Christi association continue to ask for donations for a memorial at the former camp in Eichenkofen – a stele by the artist Wolfgang Fritz.

Bank details: Pax Christi DV Munich, IBAN DE34 3706 0193 6031 3140 10 keyword: forced labor memorial Erding.

If desired, the donors can be mentioned on a plaque on the stele.

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