Annual Report 2024

Editorial

Dear readers,

There were some memorable and lovely moments for us in 2024, but in other respects it was a challenging year. We had many opportunities to gather energy and confidence at a wide variety of events, including the opening of the exhibition entitled ‘“Fighting on German soil for the whole world”: Lower Saxony under Nazi Rule’ at the Lower Saxony State Parliament right at the start of the year (p. 46/47). The Foundation’s anniversary in November was particularly special, and many colleagues, friends, and supporters travelled to Hanover to mark the occasion. Together we looked back on the past twenty years, discussed what shape our work should take in the future, and simply celebrated being together (p. 6/7). Important and enriching projects generated interesting insights which will flow into our everyday work.

At the same time, however, antisemitic, racist, and antiziganist statements and acts of violence were once again on clear public display. The work of the memorials and the process of grappling with the past were also massively called into question, and the employees of our memorials – like our colleagues all over Germany – were confronted with the task of countering this challenge. We are expected to ‘convert’ people who hold anti-democratic and far-right attitudes through our work, even while we ourselves are subjected to hostility and concrete attacks.

We hope this report gives you an insight into the Foundation’s diverse work and lets you share in our discussions a little bit. Thank you for your support over the past year.

I hope you enjoy reading our report.
With warm regards,

Dr Elke Gryglewski
Director

NOTE: THE PDF IS NOT BARRIER-FREE. A BARRIER-FREE VERSION IS IN THE WORKS AND WILL BE AVAILABLE HERE IN EARLY 2026.