SEMINAR “Searching for traces of Gurs”

The focus was on investigating the fate of Breisach Jews, who represent the more than 6,500 Jews from Baden who were deported to southern France in October 1940. In August 1942, they were sent via Drancy, near Paris, to Auschwitz. The 1940 deportation to the Gurs internment camp, on the edge of the Pyrenees, should be widely recognized as the start of Nazi Germany’s genocide of European Jewry.

Together with the students, we aimed to develop methods and pedagogical formats that will help keep the memory of historical events alive.

How can we convey this history to young people? What significance does it have for us today?

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, it was not possible to travel to Breisach’s partner city of Oswiecim, as originally planned. Therefore, we were all the more pleased that 14 students from the Catholic University of Freiburg, under the direction of Michael Siebert, chose to participate in a seminar course with us, despite the difficulties. This began online in October with an initial meeting followed by participation in the online training session

“The Photographic Staging of the Crime Auschwitz-Birkenau 1944,” with Dr. Christoph Kreutzmüller from the House of the Wannsee Conference memorial (HdW).

Participants had prepared for the first seminar day, in late November, with the help of the newly created materials from the Blaue Haus. This included all audio plays from the permanent exhibition and the videocast series “Searching for Traces of Gurs” (2020), which focuses on the illustrated stories by cartoonist Horst Rosenthal.

A virtual tour via smartphone of the site of the former Jewish community center was the first item on the program.

In the subsequent workshops, small groups focused on the audio plays from the exhibition “Jewish Life in Breisach in 1931” and the videocast series “Searching for Traces of Gurs.” Gabriele Valeska Wilczek and Olivia Schneller briefly presented the cartoons that Horst Rosenthal drew in 1942 at the Gurs camp. Rosenthal was born in 1915 in Breslau and was murdered in 1942 in Auschwitz. His illustrated narratives came to life in discussions with experts. Olivia Schneller, a member of the “Youth Remembers” project, explained how the videocasts originated.

Students evaluated the audio plays and videocasts and later presented and discussed them in a plenary session. The morning meeting was moderated by Blaue Haus educational advisor, Dr. Gabriele Valeska Wilczek.

In the afternoon, Dr. Thomas Höfert provided insight into letters from the Gurs internment camp, particularly those in the collection of Lothar Geismar. He had received them while in exile in Portugal from his sister Erna Maier, nephew Hans-Jürgen and mother Rosa Geismar, all interned at Gurs.

Some of the media were used for the first time in a scientific context and viewed with constantly changing methods. Media-educational, didactic and historical issues were the focus here.

The seminar would continue at the end of January.

I removed the reference to 80 years, because you don’t want to have to update the website every year!

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