
Jerry Lindenstraus survived the Holocaust. After the Kristallnacht, he fled as a child with his family from Nazi Germany, his journey taking him from East Prussia to Shanghai, then to Bogota, and later to New York. As part of the “Never Forget” project, the now 94-year-old shares his memories with young people from North Rhine-Westphalia. This transnational cooperation project, led by the Essen-based association Zweitzeugen e.V. and the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City, supported by the historical site Villa ten Hompel in Münster, aims to empower young people against antisemitism and sharpen international historical awareness. The project is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
In a few years, there will be no more Holocaust survivors left. Therefore, it is crucial that their stories continue to be passed on. This is precisely where the “Never Forget: Transnational Second Witnesses Educational Dialogues Against Antisemitism” project comes in: it brings young people into conversation with Holocaust survivors and makes them their second witnesses – second witnesses to their experiences. In this way, they can pass on the memories.
The personal memories of the Holocaust survivors make history tangible for young people: they tell of their daily lives before 1933, the horror of National Socialism and persecution, as well as their coping with their experiences after the end of the war and today.
In the pilot phase of the project, students from North Rhine-Westphalia were able to meet Holocaust survivors Jerry Lindenstraus and Lisa Baer in a video conference. Both were persecuted as Jews during the Nazi era in Germany and now live in the USA. Their stories exemplify the exclusion, persecution, and disenfranchisement of Jewish people – and the resulting waves of emigration.
Minister Ina Brandes: “The experience and impressions of a personal encounter with survivors of the Shoah are irreplaceable. I am very grateful that Lisa Baer and Jerry Lindenstraus have shared their personal stories and the great suffering they have experienced with students from North Rhine-Westphalia. We should seize every opportunity to bring young people into conversation with eyewitnesses. The horror of the Shoah must never be forgotten.”
Minister Brandes initiated the exchange with representatives of the Museum of Jewish Heritage during her trip to New York in April 2023. After the successful pilot and conceptual phase, the “Never Forget” project is now being rolled out and deepened. Within the framework of the NRW-USA cooperation, new approaches for a young target group will be tested. One part of this will be a cross-border online exchange on the stories of Holocaust survivors, focusing on themes of flight and exile.
Biographies of Holocaust survivors are often internationally influenced. With the rise of the National Socialists and the first anti-Jewish laws and boycotts, Jews began to seek ways to escape discrimination and persecution in the German Reich. Some attempted to emigrate, especially to the USA. For those who couldn’t flee, remaining in Europe meant facing systematic persecution and murder by the Nazis.
In this project, Nazi persecution is now examined from a transnational perspective: Therefore, in addition to students from North Rhine-Westphalia, youth groups from the USA will also participate. Many schools and extracurricular actors have already expressed interest in participating.
The young people from North Rhine-Westphalia will speak with Holocaust survivors Lisa Baer and Jerry Lindenstraus, residing in the USA, while the young people from the USA will engage with Holocaust survivor Eva Weyl from Germany and another eyewitness. They will become secondary witnesses and subsequently develop their own ideas and formats to pass on the (survival) stories of the eyewitnesses in the form of “secondary testimonies” – for example, as podcasts, social media posts, or videos.
Afterwards, students from both countries will come together online for an exchange. They will introduce each other to the stories of the eyewitnesses and reflect together on the consequences of antisemitism, the value of contemporary democracies, and the responsibility of the international community. The project results will be presented by the youth in a hybrid concluding event in the fall.
Co-founder of Zweitzeugen, Ruth-Anne Damm, emphasizes the importance of this new project approach: “I am so pleased that we can continue and intensify this special cooperation with the Museum of Jewish Heritage. This greatly enriches our work! How often does one have the chance, as a young person, to engage in such an important exchange with peers from another country on such an important topic? To delve together into history and become secondary witnesses, to recognize and discuss the different but also parallel perspectives. Thanks to the courage and dedication of the eyewitnesses, we realize how much connects us and how important our continuous commitment to democracy is.”
The “Never Forget” project is sustainable: The “secondary testimonies” created by the youth and the collected insights will be disseminated widely and support professionals in historical-political education work. As part of the project, events for multiplicators will be offered in fall/winter 2024.
More information about Zweitzeugen e.V. can be found at www.zweitzeugen.de and about the Museum of Jewish Heritage at www.mjhnyc.org