We warmly invite you to this year’s commemorative event at the Bergen-Belsen Memorial.
Programme
Bergen-Belsen Prisoner of War Cemetery
From 9.30 am: Shuttle bus from the Memorial to the Prisoner of War cemeteries
Please note that bus capacity is limited and the last bus is expected to depart at 9.45 am.
From 10.00
Welcome: Dr Akim Jah, Head of the Research and Documentation Department
Address: Dr Rolf Keller, Member of the Bergen-Belsen International Advisory Board
Silent tribute
Followed by: Return journey to the Bergen-Belsen Memorial
Bergen-Belsen Memorial
Commemoration at the Obelisk
From 11 am
Welcome: Dr Elke Gryglewski, Managing Director of the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation and Director of the Bergen-Belsen Memorial
Opening address: Julia Willie Hamburg, Lower Saxony’s Minister for Culture and Chair of the Foundation Board of the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation
Address and unveiling of the commemorative plaque: Emmanuel Suquet, Ambassador of the French Republic
Address by Pavel Kucera, survivor
Discussion (in German and English):
- Itamar Orlev, son of survivor Uri Orlev
- Mario Franz, son of survivor Johann Franz
- Elisha Tal, nephew of survivor No’omi Tal
- Leszek Wieciech, son of survivor Julian Wieciech
- Moderator: Katrin Unger, Deputy Director of the Bergen-Belsen Memorial and Head of the Education and Outreach Department
Reading of the names of former internees and prisoners who passed away last year: Ida Sander and Jacob Leineweber, Bergen-Belsen Voluntary Social Year
Musical accompaniment: Oliver Heimbach
Commemoration at the inscription wall
Commemoration at the High Cross
Prayer: Father Marx
Commemoration at the Jewish memorial
Address: Michael Fürst, President of the Regional Association of Jewish Communities in Lower Saxony
Kaddish and El Male Rachamim: Cantor André Sitnov
Followed by: Light lunch at the Documentation Centre
Day of Encounter and Reflection
Bergen-Belsen Memorial
From 1.30 pm
Presentation of the Scrollytelling website ‘Their Own Words’ (in English)
Members of the Tal family in conversation with Dr Janine Doerry and Dr Akim Jah about the family chronicle project
Discussion: ‘Transmitting the Memory of Belsen into the Future’ (in English)
- Menachem Rosensaft, born in the DP camp and Chair of the Advisory Board of the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation
- Aviva Tal, representative of those born in the DP camp on the Advisory Board of the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation
- Debbie Morag, born in the Bergen-Belsen DP camp
- Itamar Orlev, son of survivor Uri Orlev
- Leszek Wieciech, son of survivor Julian Wieciech
- Moderator: Dr Elke Gryglewski, Managing Director of the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation and Director of the Bergen-Belsen Memorial
Discussion: ‘Continued injustice against Sinti* and Roma* after 1945 and coming to terms with it’ (in German)
- Michael Brand, Federal Government Commissioner for Antiziganism and for the Life of Sinti and Roma in Germany
- Mario Franz, Lower Saxony Association of German Sinti e.V.
- Emran Elmazi, Spokesperson for the Cooperation Network against Antiziganism
- Charmaine Wagner, 1st Sinti Association of East Frisia
- Moderators: Andrea Wierich/Lukas Engelmeier, Competence center against antiziganism of the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation
The organisers reserve the right to exercise their domiciliary rights and to refuse admission to or exclude from the event any persons who belong to right-wing extremist parties or organisations or who have made or continue to make anti-Semitic, anti-democratic, history-denying, nationalistic, racist or other inhuman statements, attitudes or visible signs.