Transit zones: Western European internment sites in the interspaces of Nazi persecution
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.
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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.
Day 1: Pre-conference day at Villa Pauly (in French)
Day 2 and 3: Conference at Anatura (Weiswampach) (in French and English)
Full program available here.
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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.
