On December 12, 2023, students and interested parties had the opportunity to meet Ernst Grube and learn about his story. After a brief introduction by moderator Birgit Mair (ISFBB), the Shoah survivor, who joined via Zoom, began by telling participants about his childhood in Munich as a half-Jew. Grube took the audience on a journey through his memories, starting in 1938. This year was significant for him, on the one hand because of Kristallnacht. On the other hand, it was the year his family was torn apart when he and his two siblings were sent to a Jewish children's home.

The children spent three and a half years there before being transported to the Milbertshofen ghetto in 1942. After this barracks camp was dissolved, they were taken to a monastery complex and lived there for about six months until it was also dissolved. In 1943, there was a turning point when he and his siblings were reunited with their parents, who were living in two small rooms in Munich. In February 1945, the mother and children were deported to the completely overcrowded Theresienstadt concentration camp. He reported how German soldiers fired into the camp and how he survived this situation only by sheer luck. On May 8, 1945, the concentration camp was liberated. The Grube family survived and was able to return to Munich to their father.

Grube's lecture was followed by a lively discussion, which continued in numerous conversations even after the official event had ended. The eyewitness talk with Ernst Grube was organized by the KHG Tübingen in cooperation with the Institute for Social Science Research, Education and Consulting (ISFBB) e.V. and the Elie Wiesel Research Center.

Authors: Lea Deschler and Jessica Oppelcz

On December 1 and 2, 2023, students from the University of Tübingen visited the Buchenwald Memorial as part of the seminar “... Leaving Traces” – Silence and the Impossibility of Remaining Silent. Jorge Semprún and Elie Wiesel in Conversation. We took a guided tour to get an overview of the memorial and, together with Mr. Ronald Hirte, an employee of the education department at the Buchenwald Memorial, we explored the former concentration camp. After dinner, we had the opportunity to look at the files of prisoners Elie Wiesel and Jorge Semprun, whose personalities were the subject of the seminar, in the library.

The following day was devoted to taking a closer look at individual areas of the concentration camp and learning more about them. Among other things, we visited the prison, the crematorium, the infirmary, and the locations where the former barracks were erected—including those of Wiesel and Semprun. We also reviewed Wiesel's visit to the memorial site in 2009. The tour of the concentration camp ended with a visit to the museum, where the history of the camp was brought to life and original objects from the everyday life of the prisoners were on display.

Outside the concentration camp was a horse stable, which was later used to murder soldiers of the Red Army. This action clearly showed how much planning and systematicity went into the killings. This systematicity could be found in numerous areas of the concentration camp.

The two-day excursion with Dr. Migge provided many moving and insightful impressions. These were revisited and further discussed in later conversations within the seminar group. The entire seminar was held in cooperation with Dr. Daniel Barreto from the Instituto Superior de Teología de las Islas Canarias and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

To mark the 100th anniversary of Jorge Semprún's birth, the Buchenwald Memorial organized a lecture and discussion on the topic of Jorge Semprún: A European Life in the 20th Century. Further information can be found at here.

Authors: Lea Deschler & Sabrina Nadler

Lecture and discussion for the Konrad Adenauer Foundation On May 6, 2023, scholarship holders of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation studying at the Universities of Tübingen and Mannheim spent a day learning about the topic of “Deconstructing Conspiracy Beliefs.” The day began with a panel discussion on researching these so-called conspiracy theories by changing perspectives, prevention in the context of a project in schools, and the prevention of anti-Semitism in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Following this theoretical input, the workshop phase began, in which the scholarship holders first worked with Dr. Elisabeth Migge on general aspects of anti-Semitism and then specifically on the life of Elie Wiesel and excerpts from his works “Night” and “Tides of Silence,” allowing the scholarship holders to establish initial contact with the Elie Wiesel Research Center.

Together, we discussed the difficulties surrounding anti-Semitism when it is addressed in public discourse by comedians, for example. The excerpts from Elie Wiesel's works clearly showed how important it is to prevent anti-Semitism and to take a stand against all forms of hatred and exclusion.

We would like to thank Dr. Elisabeth Migge for this very impressive and realistic insight into the effects of anti-Semitism, which once again demonstrated how necessary and urgent it is to deconstruct conspiracy myths and carry out prevention work.

(by Kathrin Wache)

On May 5, Professor Reinhold Boschki visited the synagogue in Hechingen with students from the University of Tübingen as part of the lecture series “Theoretical Foundations and Diverse Locations of Religious Education.” The reason for the excursion was a project organized by the Hechingen Vocational Training Center. As part of their religious education classes, the students had studied Elie Wiesel and his work Night in depth. As a concluding event, the students read the book Night to each other in the synagogue that morning. The synagogue, which was destroyed in 1938, was restored by the citizens of Hechingen and now serves as a place of culture and remembrance. This event was accompanied by a filmmaker from New York who, in his documentary film about Elie Wiesel, explores how young Germans deal with autobiographical narratives about Auschwitz.

Elie Wiesel, a “witness for humanity.” Who was Elie Wiesel (1928-2016)? He survived the Holocaust as a teenager, wrote numerous literary works, taught at Boston University, and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for his commitment to peace, reconciliation, and human dignity. Elie Wiesel was born in Sighet (then Hungary, now Romania) into a Hasidic Jewish family. In the spring of 1944, Sighet was declared a ghetto and the Wiesel family was deported to Auschwitz. Only he and two of his three sisters survived the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel was liberated from the small camp in Buchenwald on April 11, 1945.

After a decade, he broke his silence and put his experiences in the camps into words for the first time: in 1956, his Yiddish testimony “Un di Welt hot geschwign” (And the World Remained Silent) was published, which, in abridged form, established his fame as a writer in 1958 as “Night.”From 1956 onwards, Elie Wiesel lived in the USA, where he wrote many works commemorating the victims of the Shoah and questioning the responsibility of God and man for evil. He was an advisor to US Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan as chairman of the Washington Holocaust Commission. Elie Wiesel was particularly committed to the rights of Jews in the Soviet Union.

Elie Wiesel died on July 2, 2016.
This and much more was presented last Thursday evening by Valesca Baert-Knoll and Dr. Elisabeth Migge, two research assistants at the Elie Wiesel Research Center, to university groups in Tübingen and Heidelberg. After a wonderful introduction to his life and work, everyone engaged in conversation about excerpts from “Tides of Silence” and a new translation of “Night.” The passages by this impressive and modest man left no one in the group untouched, and a wonderful and personal discussion ensued.stausch.

On July 12, 2022, the Elie Wiesel Research Center presented its new translation of Night: Memory and Testimony to the press. Shoah Survivor Elie Wiesel’s (1928-2016) Night is one of the best-known literary testimonies of the Holocaust. Recently, scholars at the Elie Wiesel Research Center and other contributors retranslated this work to ensure it remains accurate to the original text. This new translation corrects previously mistranslated terms and includes a special glossary that explains Jewish terms, camp language, and Nazi terminology with the help of a map depicting the most essential places in Elie Wiesel’s life. This addition to the new translation aims to facilitate academic studies of the piece for adolescents and young adults. Joining the event as a guest speaker was Dr. Michael Blume, Commissioner for Combatting anti-Semitism in the state of Baden-Württemberg, who emphasized the importance of Night to remembrance ant its ability to impact people today. The new translation of Night was reported on regionally (Schwäbisches Tagblatt), nationally (Jüdische Allgemeine), and also abroad in New York (Leo Baeck Institute).

The Elie Wiesel Research Center presented its current projects in a poster presentation at the Baden-Württemberg Foundation’s 22^nd Research Day, themed “Mission Science?!”. The Baden-Württemberg Foundation’s Research Day is a major research funding event at which all researchers with projects funded by the foundation are given the space to network and exchange knowledge. The event attracts many distinguished guests from the sciences, business, and politics.

The Elie Wiesel Research Center’s

poster

"More than five years have passed since my father died, but his words have never been more important than now. It is still common to hate Jews in the name of left-wing or right-wing ideologies. Our world is still dominated by violence. I am grateful that this new German translation is being made available to a new generation of readers so that the teachings of Night can continue to work against evil."

Elisha Wiesel

On June 20, 2019, the annual meeting of the Elie Wiesel Research Center (FEW) took place at the Riverside Hotel in Berlin. The discussion focused on planning the first publication of the German translation of Un di Welt hot geshwign. Marion Eichelsdörfer, a certified Yiddish scholar who translated Un di Welt hot geshwign into German during her dissertation project, shared her latest research findings, and presented excerpts from her translation. The team then discussed how upcoming publications of Elie Wiesel's complete works would be reviewed and edited by the Research Center. In this regard, Prof. Reinhold Boschki presented the current state of the new translation of La Nuit. We hope to begin publishing Elie Wiesel's autobiographical writings, opening with Un di Welt hot geshwign in the fall of 2020.

In addition to the scholarly exchange, two international conferences have been planned for 2020 and 2021, which the FEW will host in Berlin/Potsdam and Tübingen

The Elie Wiesel Research Center convened for an international symposium on "The Genesis of Night" from September 3-5, 2019, at the Selma Stern Center for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg in Berlin. The symposium was chaired by Prof. Dr. Daniel Krochmalnik (University of Potsdam) and Prof. Dr. Reinhold Boschki (University of Tübingen), and featured guest and keynote speaker Dr. Yoel Rappel, Director of the Elie Wiesel Archive at Boston University. The first two days focused on exchanges and discussions between the Elie Wiesel Research Center (FEW) and Dr. Rappel Yoel on the genesis of the Survivor's Report Night. The symposium included presentations by individual members of the FEW on their current research. Marion Eichelsdörfer presented excerpts from her translation of Un di Welt hot geshwign. Valesca Baert-Knoll explained the editorial procedure for the upcoming publication of Wiesel's autobiographical writings in the Elie Wiesel Werksausgabe (EWW) - a complete collection of Elie Wiesel’s work. The conference concluded with a visit to the Buchenwald Memorial, where Elie Wiesel first started writing his account of survival.

Yoel Rappel first met Elie Wiesel in New York in 1983, where they built a strong friendship and a foundation for their academic collaborations. Rappel worked for a long time as Wiesel's research assistant. Rappel later founded the Elie Wiesel Archive at Boston University and has served as its director since its establishment. Through his close collaborations with Wiesel and years of professional engagement with Wiesel's work as a journalist, historian, and author, Rappel was able to provide profound insight into the genesis of Night.

This is of great importance to some of FEW's biggest ongoing projects: The new translation and edition of Nacht, the first German translation and edition of Un di Welt hot geshwign, and an extensive Yiddish version of Night. One of the central issues discussed at the symposium concerned the controversy over the original version of Night. Was it first written in Hebrew or Yiddish? What historical interdependencies rely on the answer? These discussions led to a further question that is equally relevant for our upcoming edition of the work: How should we, as scholars, deal with textual differences among versions and languages (e.g., Yiddish, Hebrew, French, English, etc.) in terms of authenticity? What conclusions can we draw from the differences? As Wiesel’s work is built in concentric circles around Night these questions will largely inform our editing and assessment of upcoming editions of his work.

Acknowledging that conferences can be held remotely, the FEW held a team meeting over Skype on December 12, 2018. Staff members joined from Jerusalem, Tübingen, Heidelberg, and Potsdam to join Prof. Reinhold Boschki in conversations with scholars and Elie Wiesel experts in Israel about our planned historical-critical edition of Elie Wiesel’s complete works. Through hours of discussion, it became clear that our project is both well received and supported. In our meeting, we also decided to plan a conference for later in the year to which we would like to invite experts on the work and life of Elie Wiesel from Berlin and Potsdam. We will take this conference as an opportunity to present our colleague Marion Eichelsdörfer’s in-progress translation of Un di Welt hot geschwign, which she is undertaking for her doctoral project. After the conference, we plan to publish a volume of knowledge and current projects from the experts who participated. This will provide an incentive for experts to participate and enable us to make recent studies and works more easily accessible to the public.