Day of Remembrance for the Victims of National Socialism

The University of Greifswald and University and Hanseatic town of Greifswald invite you to the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of National Socialism

Thursday, 27 January 2022, 7.00 p.m.
Aula of the University of Greifswald (expected to be held online)
Domstraße 11, 17489 Greifswald

Talks by: Oliver Gaida, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
Heika Rode, Initiative for a Memorial Site at the Former Concentration Camp Uckermark
Hosted by: Prof. Dr. Cordelia Heß, University of Greifswald
Musical accompaniment: Members of Greifswald’s Music School

The survivors of the concentration camp Auschwitz were liberated by Soviet troops on 27 January 1945. Approximately one million people were cruelly tortured and murdered in Auschwitz, because they didn’t fit in with the desired image of an ideology based around racial fanaticism, or they had risen against the Nazis.   Ever since Federal President of Germany Roman Herzog established the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of National Socialism in 1996, the University and the University and Hanseatic town of Greifswald have devoted special attention to the 27 January. This year’s event addresses the largely disregarded persecution of so-called ‘asocial’ citizens during National Socialism.

Numerous prisoners had to wear the ‘black triangle’ on their clothes in the concentration camps. The Nazis used this symbol to mark them as ‘asocial’, a group that they excluded, persecuted and murdered on numerous occasions due to allegations including ‘work shyness’ or prostitution. Using specific biographies, Oliver Gaida will classify the persecution of these widely overseen victims as part of the eugenic politics of the Nazi regime. Their fates are yet to have found significant attention in the Erinnerungskultur. It was not until 2020 that the German Bundestag officially recognised them as victims of National Socialism.  Heika Rode will provide information on the local Initiative for a Memorial Site at the Former Concentration Camp Uckermark, which makes use of various forms of action to shed light on the history of the youth concentration camp for girls and young women and the later extermination site Uckermark. Special emphasis is placed on the perspective of the former prisoners, the continued exclusion from society and the historical location as a memorial site.

The talks will be accompanied by music performed by members of Greifswald’s music school.