MemoryLanes: Paths of Remembrance to Jewish Life

MemoryLanes creates new ways of remembering Jewish life in Germany, Poland, and Serbia. 86 teenagers researched Jewish biographies from their hometowns as well as the digital Centropa archive over the course of two years, and then used artistic methods to create their own remembrance projects based on six Jews from Kielce, Belgrade, Berlin, and Mannheim. Through these personal works, teenagers tell stories of Jewish life in the very places that they live in.

Target Groups, Project Countries and Partners

86 teenagers from Germany, Poland, and Serbia participated in the project. Centropa and its partners; Galicia Jewish Museum (Krakow), the Centre for Education Policy (Belgrade), Berlin History App (Berlin) and educators from each of the project countries worked closely with each of the groups to develop remembrance projects with the help of local artists. Transnational exchange was central to the project, highlighting the breadth and diversity of European Jewish history in the 20th century. 

Events

Kick-Off

From November 25-27, 2022 70 teenagers met in Krakow for the first time to brainstorm on ideas, learn more about Jewish history and heritage and get to know each other. 

Artistic Workshops and online meetings

We then conducted online meetings over the course of the project to update each other on our progress and discuss European remembrance culture. Each group had a local artist to offer guidance in creating remembrance projects based on their chosen biography. 

Concluding conference

Between June 7 and 9, 2024 we held the concluding conference, where we invited young people from Germany, Poland and Serbia to present their artistic remembrance projects on Jewish heritage. The projects focused on Jewish (Centropa) biographies from several cities - Kielce, Belgrade, Berlin, and Mannheim.

Participant’s Artistic Projects

As a result, the participants created city walking tours, films, graphic novels and songs. Over the course of the project we met at transnational conferences, online meetings and local workshops and created a dedicated Instagram account. The remembrance activities developed by participating teenagers have been incorporated into an Augmented Reality app, revealing formerly invisible places of Jewish life as new places of remembrance. You can find out more through the traveling exhibition based on Jewish biographies, which the participants co-created.

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MemoryLanes Project Outputs

Over the course of the project, an exhibition based on Jewish biographies in the project locations was developed by the participants. 

The remembrance activities developed by participating teenagers are also being added to an Augmented Reality app, anchoring formerly invisible places of Jewish life as new places of remembrance. Film clips over the course of the project summarize the path from Kick-Off to finished projects. 

Discover the project outputs by our participants from Kielce, Mannheim, Belgrade, and Berlin!

Augmented Reality App

The remembrance activities developed by participating teenagers are also being added to an Augmented Reality app, anchoring formerly invisible places of Jewish life as new places of remembrance. Film clips over the course of the project summarize the path from Kick-Off to finished projects.

Stay tuned - soon to be published. 

Exhibition

Want to learn more about the process behind the project? Then have a look at the exhibition, which was created by our participants.

Project documentation

We documented the process of the project through a short film documentation - stay tuned, soon to be published. 

The project is funded by the Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” (EVZ) and the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF).