Transit zones: Western European internment sites in the interspaces of Nazi persecution

International conference organised by the C²DH and the Centre Cinqfontaines, with the support of Zentrum fir Politesch Bildung (ZpB) and Fondation luxembourgeoise pour la mémoire de la Shoah (FLMS).

The former “Jewish retirement home” Cinqfontaines (Fünfbrunnen) in the north of Luxembourg is an example of a central but often overlooked structure in the National Socialist persecution system: internment sites. In the form of collection camps, detention places and/or transit centers, there, Jewish people were forcibly removed from their social environment, interned under poor living conditions and in many cases deported to the ghettos, concentration and extermination camps of the East.

Internment sites such as Cinqfontaines were far more than just logistical stopovers. They were spaces of extreme exclusion and disenfranchisement in which individual biographies, family structures and social ties were violently destroyed. Their establishment and functioning raise urgent questions about the local dimensions of Nazi persecution policy, the scope for action of various actors and the intertwining of state organization and social complicity.

Despite their crucial role in the Holocaust, internment sites have often remained in the shadow of concentration and extermination camps. Their history, their material and immaterial traces and their reception in the culture of remembrance therefore deserve more intensive academic examination.

The conference takes the example of Cinqfonatines as a starting point to comparatively examine the detention sites as an independent category in the National Socialist camp and detention system. In addition to allowing a comparison between better-known internment places and lesser-known sites, the different panel also aim to open up new perspectives on the history of such places, discuss methodological and source-critical challenges, reflect on the dynamics of memory and provide impulses for educational mediation. It sees itself explicitly as an international and interdisciplinary forum.

Participation is free of charge, please register using the link above. Free Shuttle service between Cinqfontaines, Troisvierges Train Station and Hotel Anatura will be provided.

Preliminary programme

17.00-18.00
Blandine Landau (C²DH, Luxembourg)

“Living Memory”: Recueillir, conserver et diffuser – La parole des témoins de la Shoah liés au Luxembourg
- French
More information: www.zpb.lu

08.30

Registration and Welcome Coffee
09.00

Welcoming words
09.20
KEYNOTE

Victoria Grace Richardson-Walden (University of Sussex/Landecker Digital Memory Lab)

Rearranging, Reimaging, and Reimagining ‘Camp Spaces’ Digitally
- English
10.00
PANEL 1: History – Historical developments and functions of internment sites

Chair/Moderation: Christoph Brüll (Head of LHI, C²DH)

Marzia Luppi (Fondazione Fossoli, Carpi, Italy)

Le Camp de Fossoli. Carrefour d’histoires, dépôt de mémoires
- Français
Kinga Julia Kiraly (University of Jewish Studies Budapest, Budapest, Hungary)

Zoom-In: Multiperspectival Narratives of San Donato Val di Comino
- English
10.45

Coffee break
11.00
Laurence Schram (Kazerne Dossin, Malines, Belgium)

À la caserne Dossin : parcours de déportés juifs du Luxembourg
- Français
Lennert Savenije (Nationaal Monument Kamp Vught/KL Herzogenbusch, Vught, Netherlands)

The illusion of Kamp Vught ‘Auffanglager’ Herzogenbusch: a terminus- turned transitstation
- English
Maurice Lugassy (Mémorial de la Shoah Paris, Paris, France)

RECEBEDOU: a « camp-hospital »
- English
12.15

Light Lunch break
13.15
Panel 2: Sources and memory preservation

Chair/Moderation: Marc Schoentgen (ZpB)

Akim Jah (Gedenkstätte Bergen-Belsen, Germany)

Berlin Assembly Camps. Sources and Digital Evaluation Potentials
- English
Victoria Kumar (ERINNERN:AT, OeAD, Bregenz, Austria)

Deported to Strasshof – Interviews with Hungarian Jewish survivors as a basis for bilingual learning materials
- English
Blandine Landau (C²DH, Luxembourg)

From the line to the network: Using testimonies to understand the paths of persecution, The case of the convoy of November 7, 1940
- English
14.30

Coffee Break (Possibility to check in for hotel guests)
15.00
Alina Bothe (Project VOICES – Uni.lu/LIST/FU Berlin (Berlin, Germany)

The role of internment camps in the experience of deportations in Western Europe
- English
Diane Afoumado (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, USA)

French Internment Camps in the USHMM Collections
- English
16.00

End of day 1
18.30

Dinner (internal event)
20.30

Musical Closing Event (internal event)

09.00

Welcoming words
09.15
Panel 3: Cinqfontaines

Chair/Moderation: Denis Scuto

Renée Wagener (Postdoctoral Researcher, Luxembourg)

Collective internment of Jews in Luxembourg and the escalation of National Socialist “Judenpolitik”
- English
Marc Schoentgen (Zentrum fir Politesch Bildung, Luxembourg)

Cinqfontaines – un site particulier au Luxembourg
- Français
Jérôme Courtoy / Elisabeth Hoffmann (Musée national de la Résistance et des droits humains, Esch/Alzette, Luxembourg)

„Wir waren froh mal Nachrichten von dort zu bekommen da man hier nichts hört u. sieht“

The internment site of Cinqfontaines from the perspective of Jewish families
- English
10.30

Coffee break
10.45
Germaine Goetzinger (Centre national de la littérature, Luxembourg)

« Quant à nous, nous devons marcher, vers l’est, vers les autres » – Le journal de Hugo Heumann
- Français
Véronique Bastien (Centre Cinqfontaines), Fränz Siebenaller (Centre Cinqfontaines), Dajana Völz (Centre Cinqfontaines)

Combining Shoah Education and Human Rights Education at Centre Cinqfontaines
- English
Sandra Camarda (C²DH, Luxembourg)

Game Design as Public History: Reimagining Cinqfontaines Through Play
- English
12.15

Light Lunch break
13.00

Transfer by bus from the conference center to the former internment site of Cinqfontaines
13.30

Guided tour of the site (English or French)
14.30

Conference Conclusion and final words
15.30

End of day 2