What effect did World War I have on Nazi crimes during World War II?

01. September 2019

14:30 - 16:30

Lecture by Dr Jens-Christian Wagner, Director of the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation, marking the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II

 

World War I ended in November 1918. Just over 20 years later, on 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland and started World War II. What role did the experiences of World War I play in German warfare and Nazi crimes during World War II? This question is explored by historian Dr Jens-Christian Wagner in a lecture followed by a discussion.

 

Location: Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation, Im Güldenen Winkel 8, Celle, function room

 

Lecture in German language

A survivor twice over: The story of Israeli athlete Shaul Ladany

05. September 2019

18:00 - 20:00

Exhibition opening

 

Shaul Ladany was deported from Hungary to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp with his family in 1944 at the age of eight. He was one of the few Jewish prisoners who were saved through negotiations conducted by Hungarian and Swiss Jewish foundations with the SS and were able to travel to Switzerland in December 1944. Shaul Ladany later emigrated to Israel, where he became a famous scholar and athlete. He participated as a race walker in the Olympic Games in Munich, where he survived the attack by Palestinian terrorists on the Israeli team on 5 September 1972.


 

Shaul Ladany has a large collection of original documents relating to his persecution by the Nazis. These documents are being publicly presented for the first time, together with information about the German occupation of Serbia and Hungary and the rescue efforts of the Hungarian Zionist Rudolf Kasztner, and about the fresh start of survivors in the newly founded State of Israel.

 

Location: Bergen-Belsen Memorial, Forum

 

Exhibition in German and English

Tour through the exhibition “Armament, War and Crimes: The Wehrmacht, the Bergen military training ground and the Bergen-Hohne Barracks, 1935–1945” for Open Memorials Day

08. September 2019

14:30 - 16:30

The exhibition in the historical Building M.B. 89 in the Niedersachsen barracks looks at the relationship between the Wehrmacht and the Nazi state, particularly the Wehrmacht’s involvement in crimes. It also covers the relationship between the Bergen-Hohne barracks and the Bergen-Belsen POW and concentration camp.

 

Location: Bergen-Belsen Memorial

 

Meeting place: Information desk in the Documentation Centre

 

Tour in German language