Poster campaign for the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of National Socialism

This Friday, 27 January, the nationwide Day of Remembrance for the Victims of National Socialism will take place again. Pupils and the Bocholt cultural worker Rainer Heeke have designed posters for this day, which will be hanging in the city centre from Friday.

On 27 January 1945, the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp was liberated by the Red Army. 27 January has been a nationwide day of remembrance since 1996. In Bocholt, too, this day has been used for many years to commemorate the Jewish fellow citizens who fell victim to the National Socialist terror.

30 short biographies prepared by pupils

This year, pupils of the Mariengymnasium, under the auspices of the Culture and Archives Department of the City of Bocholt and the Bocholt City Museum, have been dealing with the fates of Jews who came from Bocholt and were murdered under National Socialism. The result is 30 biographies. The valuable information from Josef Niebur's "Book of Remembrance" served as the basis.

Their teacher Klaus Kohlgrüber was very pleased with the willingness and work of his pupils: "However, what distinguishes the 30 texts together is the interest and commitment with which they were worked out. The two courses experienced a different form of history teaching here. The independent work on Mr Niebur's biographies and the direct historical reference to human fates in the city of Bocholt have led to a special motivation and willingness."

From 27 January, these excerpts from the biographies of Bocholt Jews who were deported and murdered by the Nazis will be published on posters in Bocholt's city centre. "It is nice to see that the young people devote themselves with interest to the topic of remembrance culture and thus put the so often used saying 'Never forget' into practice," says Mayor Thomas Kerkhoff.

"Only if we succeed in conveying to future generations the importance of actively remembering the victims of the atrocities of National Socialism can we achieve real added value from this for a tolerant, peaceful and ideology-free coexistence," says Kerkhoff.

Cultural artist Rainer Heeke designs part of the posters

"In the case of the victims from whom we had photo material for publication, we also deliberately printed them in order to be able to give them a face," says cultural manager Oliver Brenn. "For all the others, we were able to get the cultural artist Rainer Heeke to design the posters in simple Jewish symbolism."

Museum director Lisa Merschformann is also pleased about the opportunity to work with Rainer Heeke "It is really dignified that the names and dates of life are given an individual signature through the work of Mr. Heeke - just as individual as each life and fate of the victims mentioned was."

The campaign is supported by Druckerei Busch GmbH, which sponsored the posters.