Hannelore Brenner, 27 January 2021



The pre-Nazi years in which the “Girls of Room 28” had grown up, were characterized by a trend that had begun in the 19th century and had increasingly granted Jews legal equality, writes Dr. Christian Walda in his contribution to the Compendium to the Room 28 Educational Project.  This assimilation trend continued well into the interwar period, by which time most families of Jewish origin felt and defined themselves as Germans, Austrians or Czechs, and were hardly distinguishable from their neighbors.

The "Girls of Room 28" were children from the Czechoslovak Republic and Austria, born around 1930. They were shaped by a social atmosphere in which culture – music, theatre, literature – played a more important role than religion. Many of the girls did not even know that their family was of Jewish origin, and with them thousands of Jews from all over Europe. They were confronted with their 'Jewishness' only through the racist persecution of the Nazi era and were forced henceforward to deal with their 'Jewish identity' and forced to ask over and over again the same questions: "Why? What is bad about being a Jew?"

Seventy-six years after the Holocaust, this question still has to be raised, despite a Holocaust remembrance culture that has been growing in Germany over the past three decades. And we still have to fight against clichés and prejudices, against hatred, racism and anti-Semitism, also, as is evident from the ranks of diffuse groups demonstrating against Corona measures, against frighteningly perverting images of history. With each passing day, we are confronted with a growing readiness to use violence, and with people who perfidiously undermine concepts such as solidarity, mutual consideration, social interaction and political-democratic action.
Room 28 – for us this is a symbol : a "germ of humanity“; it is also
a program: the call to stand up for this germ to grow and blossom and to keep the legacy of the "Girls of Room 28" alive. We do this by means of our multimedia Room 28 Educational Project and events and activities linked to it. Because it is our mission and goal that Room 28 becomes a part of our collective memory.

Jew, Jewess, Jewish
Jew, Jewess, Jewish - these words still carry a threatening potential, an explosive mixture of clichés, prejudices, ignorance, hatred, readiness to use violence and the inability to meet a person without prejudice and free of racism. I wish I could say: We Germans have forever learned from history, said Germany’s Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in his speech in commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust at Yad Vashem in January 2020. But I cannot say this when hatred and incitement for violence are spreading. – Sadly. It's not easy with "learning from history."

Learning from history
With the Room 28 Educational Project, we are pursuing precisely this goal: We want young people to learn from the story of the "Girls of Room 28”. We want them to learn about the Holocaust, about persecution of people for racist reasons, about persecution of people with Jewish roots in Germany, in Europe, worldwide and, in particular – as the girls of Room 28 were mainly of Czech, some of Austrian origin – in our neighboring countries Austria and the former Czechoslovak Republic. We want them to learn about what happened in the so-called "Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia", in the Theresienstadt ghetto and in the annihilation-camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. However, we also want them to learn about the importance of art and culture in the struggle for self-assertion, for the assertion of one's identity and dignity.

Moreover: We want to make it possible for young people to experience what happened in Room 28, this "island in a raging Sea"; we want them to experience how concepts such as friendship, solidarity, humanity were filled with life by these girls, thanks to the caregivers and fellow prisoners, among them outstanding representatives from the Arts and Culture, the majority of them from the Czech lands; we want them to listen to what the "Girls of Room 28," the murdered and the survivors, have to tell us. All this has been handed down – in authentic documents, in the works created in alliance with the survivors (books, exhibition, theatre-play and further media), and in many sound- and film-recordings. All these elements together form the “Room 28 Projects”. The name covers the works, publications and projects carried out with them, in their spirits or in cooperation with family-members as done in Brazil, in cooperation with Karen Zolko, who realized the exhibition “As meninas do quarto 28”.
For many years, especially between 2004 and 2017 – the survivors of Room 28 have made our project of remembrance a living one. Countless times they gave testimony in places all around the world, sharing their experiences again and again, and sharing their hope and values, especially with young people. Today, in 2021, when almost all women of this  special circle of friends are no longer with us, we must find ways and support to keep their unique legacy alive – in the interest of young people and future generations, and as an essential part of our collective memory.


Detailled information and parts of the education material in the English Compendium here . Support us over Betterplace. Join our NPO www.room28.net