The “Forum of Descendants” on May 2, 2025 – Impressions

As part of events to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp, the Memorial Site hosted its first ever “International Forum of Descendants”, held on May 2, 2025.

With this event the Dachau Memorial Site and the CID respected a request expressed by relatives of former prisoners and victims of the Dachau concentration camp – to establish a forum that allows them to share experiences with one another, to tell their own specific family histories as descendants of victims of Nazi persecution, and to discuss suggestions they have for memorial site work. Postwar societies – neither in the Federal Republic of Germany nor in most other countries – failed to take into account the repercussions of imprisonment on families or the specific experiences of the descendants and surviving dependents. But while very few survivors are still alive who can give firsthand accounts, the number of descendants approaching the Dachau Memorial Site with their concerns and wishes is growing.

There was an enormous response to the event, with far more than 100 persons taking part. To begin, the Memorial Site gave descendants the opportunity to set up information stands in the large event marquee to present their initiatives and organizations. Both established associations and organizations, such as the Comité International de Dachau and the various camp communities (Lagergemeinschaften) from the different countries, founded by the survivor generation, and smaller groups, which have begun in recent years to research the history of specific victim groups, took part in this forum setting. Amongst the participating organizations was the “Verband für das Erinnern an die verleugneten Opfer des Nationalsozialismus e.V.” (an association committed to recalling the disavowed victims of Nazism), founded in 2020, which has set the goal to wrest from oblivion those persons persecuted on the basis of social-racist ideology and alleged criminal prevention.

To enable individual families to also tell their many and varied stories, the Dachau Memorial Site had prepared posters which the participants could then creatively complete prior to or during the event to present the biographies and show photographs of their relatives imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp. The participants often made connections to their own family situation today. Many concentration camp survivors and the relatives of victims of Nazi persecution have suffered greatly from the fact that the injustices directly inflicted and their repercussions were never acknowledged.

The event concluded with a panel discussion moderated by the author and journalist Nora Hespers. Descendants from different countries were joined by CID President Dominique Boueilh and Memorial Site Director Dr. Gabriele Hammermann to discuss the importance of family stories for a contemporary perspective on history and the work done by memorial sites. The discussion made clear that the descendants consider concentration camp memorial sites to be political places, although the consequences then drawn from this view proved controversial. Generally, the descendants attach great importance to the memorial sites, seeing them as historical locations, as places to mourn, as places to remember, as educational places with specialist dedicated departments, but above all as sites where information can be presented and encounters made possible – not least for the relatives of former prisoners.

If you are a descendant of a former Dachau concentration camp prisoner and would like to make contact with us, please send an e-mail to our special address: nachkommen@kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de.

Das Comité International de Dachau, verschiedene Lagergemeinschaften und Verbände präsentieren für das Nachkommen-Treffen ihre Arbeit an kleinen „Marktständen“

Participants at the Forum of Descendants

Participants in conversation at the Forum of Descendants

Participants from the “Verband für das Erinnern an die verleugneten Opfer des Nationalsozialismus e.V.” (disavowed victims of Nazism)

Participants in conversation at the “Forum of Descendants”

The descendants of Dachau prisoners presented their family history on posters and engaged in conversation

A participant presents his family history using the posters

Descendants in conversation at a stall during the Forum

Karl Freller (r.), Director of the Bavarian Memorial Foundation, talking with a participant

Panel discussion

Panel discussion with Dominique Boueilh, Prof. Dr. Helmut Wetzel, Dr. Gabriele Hammermann, Leslie Rosenthal, Georg Smirnov, Ernst Mannheimer, and moderator Nora Hespers

Participants attentively follow the panel discussion, translated into three languages, and were able to offer their own contributions at the end of the discussion

All photos: © KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau