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Images and stories from the 80th anniversary of the liberation can be found here
This year, the texts with focus on the younger generation are linked to the images in comic strip form.
Marine:
History teaches us that authoritarianism and populism, as manifested during the Second World War, enabled individuals and institutions to justify oppression and persecution. Hatred, when unchecked, becomes a destructive force that crushes human dignity. It is imperative that we study these mechanisms, not only to understand how they developed, but also to learn how to recognize them in our own time. Identifying these patterns allows us to be better prepared to respond, to resist, and to act, whether we are witnesses, victims, or, sometimes unknowingly, accomplices.
Read her speech here
Franziska Sessler:
An impassioned speech by Lina Haag's granddaughter. Read about Lina Haag on wikipedia here
People would come to our house — sometimes even the press — to talk about the book. That book. As soon as I could read, I wanted to read that book. Not children’s books — that book. I was told I was too young and needed to wait. But at nine, I secretly took the book and read it under my blanket with a flashlight. That moment changed my life.
read her speech here
Noémie Hernandez Bernard:
C’est à moi, et à chacun d’entre nous, de faire vivre ces voix. De les faire entendre aux jeunes générations, dans nos écoles, nos quartiers, nos familles. Pour que la mémoire ne soit pas un simple devoir, mais un engagement vivant, une force d’humanité contre toutes les formes de haine et d’intolérance.
Read her speech here (Francais)
Es liegt an mir – und an uns allen – diese Stimmen weiterleben zu lassen. Sie hörbar zu machen für die jungen Generationen – in unseren Schulen, unseren Stadtvierteln, unseren Familien. Damit Erinnerung nicht nur eine Pflicht ist, sondern ein lebendiges Engagement – eine menschliche Kraft gegen jede Form von Hass und Intoleranz.
Read her speech here(Deutch)
Or read the words of CID president Dominique Boueilh on the future of remembrance. here
Or go to the first page of this image collection here
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"Preparing for the future is what we are all doing here, public authorities, memorial staff and remembrance associations from all over the world, based on the values bequeathed to us by the survivors. We take care to look at the past objectively, but without concession, and we treat it as a field of experience whose analysis is necessary to find the right paths for the future. Finally, we share this knowledge with the younger generations in the most appropriate way possible, guided by the notion of ‘Never Again’."
Speech by the president of the CID on 4 May 2025
"Preparing for the future is what we are all doing here, public authorities, memorial staff and remembrance associations from all over the world, based on the values bequeathed to us by the survivors. We take care to look at the past objectively, but without concession, and we treat it as a field of experience whose analysis is necessary to find the right paths for the future. Finally, we share this knowledge with the younger generations in the most appropriate way possible, guided by the notion of ‘Never Again’."
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The General André Delpech Prize will be awarded at the CID general meeting on May 3
The general André Delpech prize 2025 will be awarded to Mr Florian Hartmann, Mayor of Dachau, for the active support given by the town of Dachau to the CID, the Memorial and the Foundation's commemoration policy and activities, as well as for its active support for requests from national associations. The prize will be presented by the President of the CID, Mr Dominique Boueilh.
In 2020, for reasons linked to the COVID, the Rainbow Division Veterans Foundation of the 42nd Division was unable to collect the Delpech Prize. This year, a delegation from the Rainbow Division Veterans Foundation has travelled to Dachau and will be present at the ceremony to receive it. The prize will be presented by General Jean-Michel Thomas, former President of the CID.
-- Exceptionally, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary, a diploma of recognition will be awarded to the 45th Division for its participation in the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp. It will be presented by President of the CID, Mr Dominique Boueilh.
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80th anniversary of the liberation
On 29 April 1945, Dachau was liberated by US troops.
The celebration of this special 80th anniversary has an extensive programme.
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Rotspanier And The International Brigadists
The transmission of their experience through the family narrative
The formation of the International Brigades was a response to the international call to defend the Spanish Republic against the advance of fascism. Volunteers from all over the world, inspired by ideals of international solidarity, united to fight in support of the republican cause, remaining in Spain from October 1936 until its dissolution on September 28, 1938, shortly before the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939. A plaque dedicated to the Austrian brigade members in the memory room of the Dachau Memorial brings us closer to the reunion between the Spanish deportees and the brigade members. That reunion provided the Spaniards with invaluable help that accompanied them during the time they were deported; the language barrier was a great handicap against their perpetrators.
As president of the Spanish Association Amical Dachau, Cristina Cristóbal established a cooperation with the "Österreichischen KZ-Gemeinschaft Dachau" to jointly hold on June 5, 2024 at the Cervantes Institute in Munich the talk-colloquium: Rotspanier And The Brigadistas International Internations: The Transmission Of Your Experience Through The Family Narrative. This event focused on sharing and transmitting the different family narratives that brought us closer to the lives of three deportees to Dachau: Ferdinand Berger, Alois Peter and Fermín Cristóbal. Three lives with a parallel story that began in the Spanish War and ended with his deportation to Dachau.
Felipe Santos,Cristina Cristóbal, Ernst berger, Eva Friedler, Carlos Collado Seidel Photo: Cervantes Institute Munich (2024)
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Pierre Schillio registration number Birkeneau 145986 - registration number Dachau 90719
Pierre Schillio in the presence of Patricia Mirallès, Secretary of State to the Minister for the Armed Forces, with responsibility for Veterans and Remembrance, at the ceremony to officialise the Union of Nazi Camp Remembrance Associations, on 3 October 2023.
"I'll tell you one thing, I was a 13-year-old child when I entered the Birkenau camp, but 8 days later, I was no longer a child"
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Awarding of the Stanislav Zámečník Study Prize 2024
V.l.t.R. Mayor of Dachau Florian Hartmann, CID President Dominique Boueilh, Award winner Josch Döpp M.A., Prof. Dr. Sybille Steinbacher, Dr. Gabriele Hammermann
Laudation for the award winner Joscha Döpp M.A.
On the occasion of the awarding of the Stanislav Zámečník Study Prize for 2024, the President of the CID Dominique Boueilh, Secretary General Cristina Cristóbal, Dr. Ernst Berger, Prof. Dr. Sybille Steinbacher, Dr. Gabi Hammermann, Florian Hartmann, mayor of the city of Dachau, members of the CID and other invited guests met in the plenary hall of the New Dachau Town Hall to present the Stanislav Zámečník Study Prize for 2024.
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80th Anniversary of the Death Train, Convoi 7909, 2 to 5 July 1944
© Comité International de Dachau
Some of the carriages gradually become mass graves, where people die from heat, lack of water, asphyxiation, or from the blows of their neighbours fighting for their own survival.
From 2 to 5 July 2024, the Amicale française du camp de concentration de Dachau (French association of the Dachau concentration camp) made a 4-day commemorative journey with a group made up of the families of victims or survivors of deportee convoy 7909, which left Compiègne on 2 July 1944 with more than 2,000 men on board, claiming more than 550 victims during the journey.
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Visit to the Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism (Munich)
On the morning of Saturday 29 April, members of the Amicale française de Dachau visited the Documentation Centre on the History of National Socialism (NS-Dokumentationszentrum München) in the company of two French-speaking guides.
Opened to the public in April 2015 to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Munich, this fabulous museum provides detailed explanations of the creation and rise to power of the Nazi regime, as well as its aftermath and the future direction of society. It is therefore a place of historical education, but also of political questioning with a resolutely forward-looking approach.
