2004
International Conference on Family History
The Blue House hosted a trilingual international conference on the first Jewish families of Breisach, going back to the 17th century with the example of the Geismar family. Among those participating were Holocaust survivors and many descendants of Breisach Jews. The Friends of the Blue House invited a group of local high school students to New York to spend two weeks tracing the history of the Jewish exile community. They were hosted by members of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue.
Ralph Eisemann introduced the Blue House to his former classmates from the forced school for Jewish children at the Lessingschule in Freiburg, 1936–38. Under the direction of Rosita Dienst-Demuth, the history workshop at the Lessing-Realschule in Freiburg had searched worldwide for surviving former pupils and invited them to Freiburg.
For one and a half years, immigrants with Jewish roots from the former Soviet Union used the prayer room in the Blue House monthly. Afterwards, they would gather in the former dining room for Kiddush.
The second summer camp with Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste was held on both banks of the Rhine: in Breisach and in the Jewish cemetery in Mackenheim, Alsace.
