Research
27.01.2025

Ruth Ditlmann on her project to keep memories of the past alive

Stolpersteine, or Stumbling Blocks, in Bamberg, Germany. Stumbling Blocks are plaques in the ground inscribed with the name and dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution.

The Professor of Psychology and Public Policy draws insights from her research on digital history projects in Germany.

27 January, the UNESCO International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. With political extremism on the rise, the day serves as a solemn reminder of our duty to ensure that past atrocities are not forgotten. How can we do that? One way is to get people involved in a digital history project, says Professor of Psychology and Public Policy Ruth Ditlmann. In an interview, she shares insights from her research on participatory memory projects, which aims to understand how we can strengthen commemoration culture in Germany.

What is your project about?

Along with Oguzhan Turkoglu, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Hertie School, and Berenike Firestone from the Berlin Social Science Center, I’m researching whether learning about historical atrocities such as the Holocaust mobilises us to act for better inter-group relations today. In one project, participants are asked to digitise material from an archive of original documents on Nazi persecution, such as so-called prisoner registration cards from concentration camps. We look at whether taking part in such projects motivates people both to get involved in similar memory projects and to make the connection to causes around social justice today.

The research is part of a larger project funded by the Volkswagen Foundation and is being conducted with the Arolsen Archives and their initiative #everynamecounts. The project will be presented at the Hertie School at a public launch event on 5 May 2025.

What are your key findings?

Our research suggests that participating in a digital history project tends to increase people’s motivation to engage in collective action, especially when it comes to further remembrance and countering antisemitism, and (less strongly) to supporting democracy. We can still observe the effects for remembrance and countering antisemitism more than two weeks later.

What impact will this research have?

We hope that our research and the #everynamecounts project can inspire other practitioners in this field to develop similar digital participatory memory projects. The project showcases the impact that these endeavours can have in motivating members of civil society to be catalysts of an active commemoration culture. If we want past atrocities to be remembered, we need people to actively engage with collective memory; otherwise, this memory is just consigned to old history books on a dusty library shelf.

 

Ruth Ditlmann joined the Hertie School in 2021 as the recipient of the Volkswagen Foundation’s Lichtenberg Professorship. Her interdisciplinary research focusses on integration, peace-building and national identity.

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