With the “Football and Remembrance” project, we commemorate the era of National Socialism and the many victims of German crimes.
Bernd NeuendorfDFB President
More than 80 years after the end of the Holocaust, we need to find new ways to raise awareness of the continuing relevance of the memory of this crime. Sport offers extraordinary opportunities for this.
Maram SternExecutive Vice President of the World Jewish Congress
We are grateful that numerous memorial sites have joined our “Football and Remembrance” initiative, and we look forward to welcoming many visitors.
Olliver TietzManaging Director of the DFB Cultural Foundation
Football brings people together. This is also an opportunity to learn together from the crimes of National Socialism - for a successful coexistence.
Brita HeinrichsMittelbau-Dora Memorial
I think it is wonderful, that many people are dealing with the topic of football under National Socialism. With their diverse perspectives, fans are an important target group for educational work in memorial sites.
Paula ScholzResearch and educational assistant at the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial
Football and Remembrance
“Football and Remembrance” is a website for everyone interested in the history of sport under National Socialism. Many memorial sites in Germany offer visitors the opportunity to explore history through the lens of sport. The project was launched in summer 2024 on the occasion of the men’s European Football Championship in Germany.
Bergen-Belsen Memorial
Founded in 1952, the Bergen-Belsen Memorial is the oldest state memorial in Germany. Visitors have the opportunity to find out about the different phases of the place, from the prisoner of war camp, concentration camp to the displaced persons camp.
Buchenwald Memorial
The name "Buchenwald" became synonymous with National Socialist crimes when the concentration camp was built on the Ettersberg near Weimar in 1937. From 1945, the Soviets used the site for one of their special camps, and after 1950, the GDR built Germany's largest concentration camp memorial here.
In 1990, Buchenwald was redesigned as a memorial and opened up for the remembrance of the fate of other groups of victims.
Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site
On 22 March 1933, the Nazi regime opened a concentration camp on the site of the disused Royal Bavarian Powder and Ammunition Factory in Dachau. The detention and terror centre existed for twelve years. More than 200,000 prisoners from over 40 nations were imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp and its sub-camps; at least 41,500 people died there from hunger, disease, torture, murder and the consequences of concentration camp imprisonment.
Düsseldorf Memorial and Education Centre
The Düsseldorf Memorial and Education Centre, located in the historic “Stadthaus” since 1987, is a place of remembrance, research and encounters. In addition to the permanent exhibition “Düsseldorf children and young people under National Socialism”, there are regularly changing special exhibitions and evening events.
Foundation of Hamburg Memorials and Learning Centres Commemorating the Victims of Nazi Crimes
The Hamburg Memorials and Learning Centres Foundation includes the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, the Stadthaus historical site and four other memorials and learning centres. The foundation commemorates National Socialist crimes, researches and communicates their history and consequences and preserves the memory of those persecuted by the Nazi regime.
Gestapokeller and Augustaschacht Memorials
The Gestapokeller (Osnabrück) and Augustaschacht (Hasbergen) memorials form a unique ensemble due to their preserved building fabric and their common historical connection. Both memorials and their exhibitions, which opened in 2020, deal with the topic of “Police violence and forced labour”.
Leipzig Nazi Forced Labour Memorial
The memorial commemorates the victims and the history of Nazi forced labour in the Leipzig area. It is a contact point for former forced labourers and their relatives, researches aspects of the topic that have not yet been examined and collects historical evidence.
Memorial and Museum Sachsenhausen
The memorial is a decentralised overall concept that takes visitors through authentic places on an immersive journey through history. The specific history of the Oranienburg concentration camp, Sachsenhausen concentration camp and the Soviet special camp is thematically linked in 13 exhibitions. As a place of remembrance and learning as well as a modern museum of contemporary history, it combines traditional tasks such as collecting and preserving testimonies with scientific research and historical-political education. A place of remembrance, learning and experience that presents the past in a multi-layered perspective.
Mittelbau-Dora Memorial
The Mittelbau-Dora Memorial at the site of the former concentration camp near Nordhausen is an international place of learning and remembrance on the history of Nazi forced labour and underground relocation of the armaments industry as well as the close integration of Nazi crimes into German society.
Nazi Documentation Centre of Krefeld
Housed in the former villa of Jewish silk manufacturer Richard Merländer, Krefeld’s Nazi Documentation Centre has been researching and presenting local Nazi history since 1991. Besides offering a wide range of educational programming, it houses impressive murals by Heinrich Campendonk alongside temporary travelling exhibitions.
Netzwerk Erinnerungsarbeit
Das Netzwerk Erinnerungsarbeit (kurz Netz E), ein Zusammenschluss aus Fans und Mitarbeitenden des Vereins, gründete sich im Frühjahr 2016. Ziel des Netz E ist es, durch seine bildungspolitische Erinnerungsarbeit und die Aufarbeitung des Nationalsozialismus diskriminierende Haltungen und Praktiken im Verein und in seiner Fanszene zu thematisieren und zu bekämpfen. Das Netz bietet kostenlos Rundgänge an für Gruppen von 5-20 Personen.
NS-Documentation Centre of the City of Cologne
The Nazi Documentation Centre is dedicated to commemorating, researching and communicating the history of Cologne under National Socialism. It is based in the EL-DE House, where the headquarters of the Cologne Gestapo was located from December 1935 to March 1945. The former house prison with over 1,800 inscriptions from prisoners is a unique memorial site.
Place of Remembrance Hotel Silber
During the Nazi dictatorship, the “Hotel Silber” was the headquarters of the Gestapo for Württemberg and Hohenzollern. Since 2018, this has been a place for historical-political learning and encounters. It is operated by the House of History of Baden-Württemberg and co-designed by Initiative Lern- und Gedenkort Hotel Silber e. V.
Sport Museum Berlin
Sport and the history of sport is our passion. What sport is and what significance sport has had for societies or individuals can be told as a story of spectacular events, moving feelings, fascinating or regulated bodies, as a story of emancipation, great success or failure, as a story of belonging and community or as a story about exclusions. It is difficult to imagine a modern social history without sport. The Sports Museum Berlin deals with the significance and diversity of sport in Berlin, German and transnational history through research, education, collection and exhibitions.
The Nazi Forced Labor Documentation Center Berlin-Schöneweide
The Nazi Forced Labour Documentation Centre in Berlin-Schöneweide is the only institution on the historic site of an almost completely preserved forced labour camp in the middle of a residential area. Since 2006, it has been making visible the long-hidden fate of the more than 26 million men, women and children who were exploited as forced labourers by the Nazi regime during the Second World War.
Photos: Mareen Meyer, Thomas Eisenhuth, Shahar Azran, Sigrid Haake