On May 2, 2023, relatives of former Neuengamme Concentration Camp inmates will once again have the opportunity to jointly print, placard and publicly present their posters designed for the Space to Remember.
Each year, the Space to Remember at the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial “Plattenhaus” is added to with new printing plates of posters with which relatives pay tribute to their persecuted family member. The printing plates are visible on site in the outdoor area and are ready for the posters to be reproduced by hand in the printing workshop. This is how the Space to Remember grows each year.
© Iris Groschek, SHGL
© Iris Groschek, SHGL
Last year, more than 30 relatives from several countries followed the invitation to meet on site. Many took advantage of the opportunity to print one or more posters in the printing workshop with the printing plates they had created themselves, and also to talk to each other about their own family history.
More than 100 guests came to the public poster presentation. The speakers were Balbina Rebollar, daughter of Evaristo Rebollar and president of the Spanish Amicale de Neuengamme, Karin van Steeg, relative of 14 of the concentration camp prisoners deported in the course of the raid in Putten in the Netherlands, and Yvonne Cossu, honorary president of the French Amicale de Neuengamme. They presented their self-designed posters one after the other and impressively described which thoughts, objectives, considerations and feelings were important for them in the development of these posters.
Prior to the joint placarding, all relatives lined up with their printing plates and, one by one, recited the name of the person to whom their printing plate is dedicated – for many an incredibly touching moment and a highlight of the event.
© Iris Groschek, SHGL
This year, there will again be the opportunity to print together, present posters, and learn about the stories of the persecuted and their families behind the posters:
Tuesday, May 2, 2023, 2-5 p.m.: Open print workshop at the Space to Remember
This is the time for all relatives to visit the printing workshop without pre-registration to print their self-designed poster. They will receive an introduction to the printing technique, which was already used in the resistance against National Socialism, and the opportunity to exchange ideas with other relatives of persecutees. The posters can be taken home, distributed further or made available for a presentation on site. We look forward to many international encounters and conversations!
Tuesday, May 2, 2023, 5-6 p.m.: Public poster presentation at the Space to Remember
At the Space to Remember, two relatives of former concentration camp inmates will publicly present their posters. Afterwards, all relatives present are invited to placard the posters they have designed together.
Speakers:
Riet Schuit/Karin van Steeg
It was not until the age of 13 that Riet Schuit learned about her real father. Hendrikus Schipper had been deported from Putten in the Netherlands in 1944 as part of a reprisal action by the German Wehrmacht. Eight months later, his daughter Riet was born. Because of his deportation, Riet’s parents were unable to marry. Whether he ever found out that he would become a father is not known. Hendrikus Schipper died a few weeks after his arrest in the Ladelund subcamp of Neuengamme concentration camp. He was 21 years old. His story was a taboo in the family. Together with Karin van Steeg, Riet Schuit talks about her father and the impact of his deportation on her own life.
Mykola Titov/Yanina Martynova
“I was born after the war, but the war has never left me,” Mykola Titov wrote in 2020 on the poster he designed for his uncle Ivan Titov, who died in the Neuengamme concentration camp. Two years later, the Russian invasion of Ukraine took place. Mykola Titov and his family managed to escape from the Ukrainian war zone to Hamburg. Representing Janina Martynova, who lives as an internally displaced person in Ukraine, he will present the poster about Nikolay Averyanovich Avdeenko. The grandfather, with whom Janina Martynova grew up, survived the imprisonment in the Neuengamme concentration camp. With the prison compensation, for which Nikolay Avdeenko had to wait for decades, he helped to make it possible for his granddaughter to study.
Musical performance: Georg Taubitz and Matthis Gaebel, horn
An event of the working group Space to Remember and the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial in cooperation with “Freundeskreis der KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme”, “Arbeitsgemeinschaft Neuengamme” and Amicale Internationale KZ Neuengamme.
Important:
For those who want to design their own poster, see “How do I design a poster motif?“. For printing plates that are to be produced before May 2, we need the poster motifs by March 1, 2023 at the latest!
Please notify us via email to info@ort-der-verbundenheit.org by April 15, 2023 if you would like your poster to be displayed at the public poster presentation. Since the posters need to dry after printing, we will prepare all posters in advance for the presentation. We are looking forward to your visit!
