From 4-7 November 2024, the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure held the seminar ‘Holocaust and Exile – Approaches, Sources, Methodologies’, hosted at the German National Library (DNB) in Frankfurt am Main. Jointly organized by EHRI partner IfZ and the German Exile Archive 1933-1945 as part of the DNB, 13 participants, most of them researchers and archivists affiliated in Italy, Austria, Germany, Israel, Serbia and Portugal spent four days discussing the link between Holocaust and Exile Studies and the methodologies to approach this research topic that has often been overlooked in the past.  

After a round of introduction, the seminar programme began with presentations on the history of the German Exile Archive and the research field of Exile Studies. The participants were also given insights into the history and future of the EHRI project, and its digital services, such as the EHRI Portal or the MOOC. The first day concluded with an extensive walking tour following a thematic focus on the so-called Kindertransporte and leading through various neighbourhoods of Frankfurt. The tour also included brief input on Fritz Bauer, a Jew who managed to flee into exile. After the war, Bauer returned to Germany and became Attorney General in Frankfurt, where he was instrumental in the prosecution and conviction of prominent Nazi criminals. 

The focus of the EHRI event was on sources from the Exile context and their relevance for studying the Holocaust: On the second day of the seminar participants closely examined and discussed documents stemming from Jewish exiles and those persecuted by the Nazi regime. Another hands-on session included the digitization of the Reichsausbürgerungskartei, another collection held at the German Exile Archive relevant to studying the history of the Holocaust. In cooperation with our EHRI partner Arolsen Archives, and as part of the #everynamecounts crowdsourcing campaign, the German Exile Archive had previously launched an initiative to digitize the vast archival collection. In this workshop, the seminar attendees gained valuable insights into the opportunities of citizen science, and actively supported the crowdsourcing campaign. 

Furthermore, our participants were able to visit the ‘Exile. Experience and Testimony’ and the “Frag Nach” exhibitions, both offered at the DNB. The latter is an interactive exhibition that traces the lives of Inge Auerbacher and Kurt Maier, two Jewish Exiles born and raised in the same village. The highlight of the exhibition is the digital, interactive interview section which can also be conducted online. Based on state-of-the-art AI-technology, jointly developed with the USC Shoah Foundation, this part of the exhibition offers the possibility to communicate with the two interviewees now over 90 years old. Here, seminar participants engaged in active discussions about the potential of AI approaches within Exile and Holocaust related memory culture with Silvia Asmus, head of the German Exile Archive and curator of the “Frag Nach” exhibition. 

As part of the EHRI seminar, the German Exile Archive also invited renowned historian Wolfgang Benz to give a public keynote lecture on his current project ‘Exile. History of an Expulsion 1933-1945’. The book, which will be published in early 2025, tells the history of the German exile, and intended to help overcome the long-standing division between political, cultural and Jewish emigration from Nazi Germany.  

Overall, the seminar at the DNB in Frankfurt brought together participants from various backgrounds, providing a valuable space for exchanging different perspectives on Holocaust history and inspiring further discussions. As one participant from Germany shared, ‘I now have new research questions and a new archive on my mind.’ 

Seminar report by Johannes Meerwald and Florine Miez, both Center for Holocaust Studies at the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History (IfZ)