Executive Board | Period 2020 to 2022

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1st Chairman: Dr. Marco Brenneisen

Since 2009 I have been a volunteer in the memorial site “KZ-Gedenkstätte Sandhofen (Mannheim)”, where I hold the office of deputy chairman. Since 2017, I have also been a member of the MARCHIVUM (formerly Stadtarchiv-Mannheim-ISG), where I am responsible for the scientific and organisational management of the memorial site. I am a graduate social scientist and historian and in 2019 I submitted my dissertation to the University of Mannheim, in which I analysed the “post-history” of the satellite camps of Natzweiler Concentration Camp in southwestern Germany as well as the developments in the culture of remembrance in these places since 1945. The history of the Natzweiler subcamps is therefore as familiar to me as the memorial landscape in southwestern Germany; especially since I have been a member of the spokesman’s council of the State Working Group of the Memorials and Memorial Initiatives in Baden-Württemberg (LAGG) since 2016. Last year, I was a member of the VGKN executive board as vice chairman

I am pleased to be able to act in future as 1st chairman of the VGKN and to continue the work carried out by Dorothee Roos with untiring commitment. It is important to me to consolidate the networking, cooperation and exchange between the memorial sites and to promote public awareness of the memorial landscape through joint projects. At the same time, the successful Franco-German cooperation with the CERD and other partners is to be continued. In the medium term, therefore, the further development of the Natzweiler database by VGKN, CERD and Prof. Robert Steegmann (Strasbourg) will be one of my main tasks on the board

I would like to be able to extend the cooperation in the field of research and historical-political education to other countries, especially Poland

2nd Chairman: Dr. Tobias Markowitsch

Since 1993 I have been an active member of the KZ Neckarelz Memorial Site e.V., and over the past 25 years I have had the opportunity to experience, research and shape the history of the Neckarelz camp and its main camp at Natzweiler-Struthof in a variety of ways. In addition to exhibition concepts, visits to the archives, youth projects and discussions with contemporary witnesses, together with Kattrin Zwick I wrote an extensive overall presentation of the Neckarelz camp (Goldfisch und Zebra – Die Geschichte des Konzentrationslagers Neckarelz – Außenkommando des KZ Natzweiler-Struthof, 2. Auflage 2011). The focus of my dissertation, published in 2018, was on the post-war history of the relocation project A8/Goldfisch („Verlagert – demontiert – ausgeschlachtet: Goldfisch 1944-1974. Vom NS-Rüstungsbetrieb zur Maschinenfabrik Diedesheim).

The aim of my work at the VGKN is to familiarize teachers with the topic of “Natzweiler-Struthof and its satellite camps” – by designing teaching materials and training courses, by accompanying projects and by deepening Franco-German cooperation with thematic references and various cooperation partners.

Treasurer: Dr. Albrecht Dapp

Ever since my childhood I have been occupied with coming to terms with the Nazi past – in view of the fact that my family was affected by the National Socialists . Since I came to Spaichingen in 1986, I have also devoted myself, as far as my scope of activity in addition to my job as chief physician in a small clinic allowed, together with some fellow citizens, to the commemoration of the Natzweiler subcamp which existed there from 1944 to 1945. As a representative of this initially only loose association, I took part in the founding of the VGKN in 2016 and, at the suggestion of the two chairwomen at the time, Dorothee Roos and Brigitta Marquart-Schad, took over the office of treasurer. In order to intensify the memorial work in Spaichingen, we founded an “Initiative KZ-Gedenken” in Spaichingen in 2018 as an association.

The work as treasurer during the start-up phase of the VGKN and the many challenges and information associated with it are exciting tasks and bring a wide range of ideas, now that as a retiree I would like to devote myself to other interests outside medicine. I would like to contribute to the successful continuation of the manifold projects of this important commemoration work.