After several years of contentious discussions about the renaming of Rheintorstaße, so dubbed by the Nazis, the Breisach town council reached conclusions about “How the Jewish history of Breisach could be made visible.”

The Förderverein found hosts for a series of “Werkstattgespräche” (workshop talks) about Jewish life today and yesterday. The talks were held at the gallery Goldammer, the history museum and the Martin Bucer Protestant Community. In July, a purchase contract for the building was closed and an intense phase of planning for the renovation and use of the house began.

Willi Sutter and the company “Domiziel” oversaw the long process of renovation. In April, the lecture room was inaugurated festively.

With a “Jewish Week” the renovated house was dedicated in June and officially named the “Blue House.” The street in front of the house was closed and transformed into a temporary lecture hall.

The association held a three-day, trilingual international conference on the founding families, with the Geismar family as an example. Several Holocaust survivors and many descendants of Jewish families of Breisach participated.

In May, on the 60^th anniversary of the Allied liberation of National Socialist Germany, the Blue House presented photos that Gerald Schwab (1925 -2014) had taken as a US Army soldier in 1945 and 1946, of his parents’ destroyed hometown.

In New York, “Friends of the Blue House” planned their support of the work that had so far been done in Breisach. Jonathan Hollander and Aviva Geismar, two choreographers, discovered their different connection with Breisach, and after two years of preparation brought to Freiburg and Breisach their “Dances for the Blue House.”

The Zivi/Zivy family of Müllheim held reunion in Breisach.

Students of Martin Schongauer High School worked for several weeks on various subjects marking the 70^th anniversary of the November Pogrom.

The 70^th anniversary of the deportation of the Jews of Baden prompted an invitation to Jewish guests to commemorate their families and remember the destruction of the community: “300 years of the Jewish Community in Breisach.”

Brundibar, the children’s opera first performed in the Theresienstadt concentration camp, came to Breisach. During their rehearsals, members of the children’s choir of St. Stephen’s Cathedral Parish and the choir of the Hugo Höfler Realschule met and talked with Inge Auerbacher, who had survived the camp.

A “Year of Remembrance” was launched together with “Für die Zukunft lernen” (Learn for the Future: Association for the Preservation of the Children’s Barracks at Auschwitz-Birkenau e.V.” and “Freundeskreis Oświęcim e.V.” (friendship circle, Breisach-Auschwitz). The high point was the Battery Dance Company New York’s unveiling of a Sculpture for the Blue House by artist Heike Endemann.

The city of Breisach and the Foundation for the Blue House jointly designed the site for the new sculpture. It was unveiled in June and named for Michael Eisemann, the last cantor of the Breisach Jewish community. Once again we welcomed Jewish visitors from around the world whose ancestors had roots in Breisach, including guest speakers Lauren Sonkin, a great-granddaughter of Michael Eisemann,

By now, the debts of the association had been paid off.

Up to 2015, all work was done on a voluntary basis. Now, support from the State of Baden-Württemberg allowed the hiring of staff for so-called mini-jobs. The professional archiving, inventory and digitalization of the data was launched.

The Blue House has many young visitors, many of whom participate in painting, research, drawing and reflection.

On 24 July, the Blue House hosted the president of the State Parliament, Muhterem Aras, with her staff; and Sybille Thelen, head of the memorial site department of the State Center for Political Education (Landeszentrale für politische Bildung) of Baden-Württemberg. During a memorial tour, they learned about the development of volunteer work at the location.

Ralph Eisemann wanted to show his three granddaughters where the family had its roots. Parts of the former Jewish community center already could be visited at the time: Eisemann explained to a small initial group how the house was used during his childhood.

The Blue Book 2, dedicated to founding member Günter Boll, was published in the spring and presented at the local history museum – the Museum für Stadtgeschichte Breisach am Rhein. On this occasion, the association opened an exhibition about the Geniza of Mackenheim, which Günter Boll had rescued from oblivion in 1981.