Sunday. 5. Mai 2024,

"there will always be people and systems that spread hatred and intolerance, that violate the dignity of others and threaten freedom. It is up to all of us to resolutely oppose this hatred "

Today, as every year, we have gathered at the crematorium to commemorate the victims of the Dachau concentration camp. First and foremost, I would like to express my thanks and respect to the survivors present who, at an advanced age, took on the arduous journey to come to Dachau for today's liberation ceremony.

Speech by Marine Charbonneau, at the memorial for the victims of the death march, 4 May 2024

‘Eight months of voluntary service have changed my perspective. From now on, my focus is on the future, on future generations. History lessons alone are not enough’

Good evening. Thank you all for coming here today to the memorial for the victims of the death march.
My name is Marine Charbonneau, I'm from France and I'm here for a year as a volunteer with Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste at the Protestant Church of Reconciliation at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial.

When I arrived here in September 2023, I already had a good knowledge of the history of National Socialism and the German occupation of my home country. But eight months of voluntary service changed my perspective. From now on, my focus is on the future, on future generations. History lessons alone are not enough The memorial book project for the prisoners of the Dachau concentration camp made me realise this need to teach young people more than just historical facts in order to understand the events; you have to link them to the present and the future in order to prevent the same atrocities from happening again, in whatever form.

AT THE BORDER AGAIN

Speech on the 79th anniversary of the liberation of Dachau concentration camp
Hebertshausen shooting range 4 May 2024

  "This place shows us that evil is not just anywhere. It is not abstract, but concrete and close at hand everywhere. Evil can - to paraphrase Hannah Arendt - be banal and take place just a few metres away from us."

The plow follows a straight line. Like knives, the blades cut through the black mossy earth and throw it into loose clods. White stones lie in it. Crows swoop down on the freshly thrown up earth and peck at it. The boy has been driving the tractor for hours, row by row, up and down, lost in thought. Over at the edge of the field there is nothing but undergrowth, brambles and wild birch trees. The border to this wilderness is marked by a dead straight row of tall concrete pillars. Some of them are broken off, rusted iron protruding from the demolition sites. They stand mysteriously and menacingly in the wilderness. Remnants of barbed wire hang from them. A paper sack is caught on them and whines in the wind. The adults have told the boy that the land behind the posts once belonged to his grandfather.

 Speech Carlotta Seidel ,Hebertshausen shooting range 4 May 2024

"Students often ask me how people can do such things to other people. How people can be so inhumane."

I have been doing a voluntary social year at the Max Mannheimer Study Centre in Dachau since September. When I started working there, I realised how little I had actually learned about National Socialism at school. There are many topics that were not even addressed. For example, that Soviet prisoners of war were taken to various concentration camps to be murdered there directly. That these people were never registered in the concentration camps. That only a few names are known to this day.

"The last survivors of the deportation, such as Abba Naor or Jean Lafaurie here today, and many others, never cease to bear witness to young people, at the cost of an inordinate effort due to their advanced age, but guided by an unparalleled motivation. Nothing is more alarming than to hear their own voices expressing concern about a world that is once again threatening and forgetting the lessons of the past."

The years 2024 and 2025 are synonymous for us, those involved in remembrance, with important milestones. On 6 June, on the beaches of Normandy, we will be celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings, which opened the gates to the liberation of Europe from the yoke of the Nazi invaders. On 29 April 2025, we will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Dachau camp by the American army.

We remember what has happened out of respect for the victims and for the future of our children.

Invitation & program 2024

The Max Mannheimer Scholarship

In recognition of the contributions of Max Mannheimer (1920 – 1916) for the International Youth Meeting Dachau and with the aim of keeping his legacy alive, the Max Mannheimer Scholarship has been constitued in 2018 on the initiative of the district of Dachau. Every year, up to three young people from Germany and abroad who do not have sufficient financial means are given the opportunity to attend IYM Dachau free of charge. The scholarship is organized by the IYM Dachau organizations and is under the patronage of the District Administrator Stefan Löwl.

Read more on this scholarship

Eyewitness talk with Abba Naor at the NS Documentation Centre Munich

Abba Naor in 2012 Image CID

Vice president of the CID Abba Naor has tirelessly recounted his experiences in the war for many years. on 22 February, he will do so in Munich

Zámečník Prize of the Year 2023 goes to Mr Joscha Döpp

The CID jury has awarded the Stanislav Zámečník Prize of the Year 2023 to Mr Joscha Döpp for his master's thesis in history at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main with the title:

Charged with mass murder in Ukraine.

The federal German investigations against the
SS-Hauptsturmführer Kuno Callsen and the
the Darmstadt Einsatzgruppen Trial(1960-1968)