About the project
Starting Point and History of Origin
The starting point for the multimedia contemporary witness project “Two sides of history - remembering for a common future” is the double biography Zwei Seiten der Geschichte – Lebensbericht aus unruhigen Zeiten, published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht in Göttingen/Germany in 2002.
As part of the project, a volunteer team of historians, film authors, educators, archivists and historically interested laypeople developed a multimedia script containing more than alltogether 400 text excerpts, videos, photos and documents. (www.zweiseitendergeschichte.de)
Prof. Wilma and Georg Iggers as well as more than 20 other contemporary witnesses have kindly made themselves available for interviews at original locations in Germany, the Czech Republic, Canada, and the USA.
This present English version of the project (published in 2025) is essentially based on the former German project version, but also contains a large number of English texts taken from the book Wilma Iggers and George Iggers, Two Lives in Uncertain Times. Facing the Challenges of the 20th Century as Scholars and Citizens (New York, 2006) with the kind permission of the publisher Berghahn. (https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/IggersTwo)
This didactically designed website is the result of years of voluntary work. Constant revision and additions are planned. The non-profit organization Brücken Bauen e.V. (Herford / Germany) would be grateful for any suggestions.
Objective and Target Groups
With the help of this oral history project about a part of the Holocaust, the non-profit association Brücken Bauen e. V. has set itself the goal of making a lasting contribution to intercultural understanding, against racism and for the peaceful coexistence of people of different religions and ethnic origins. The website, which also contains some information in German, sees itself as a contribution against forgetting the horrors of the Nazi dictatorship and the flight of hundreds of thousands of Jews from Germany and from the European countries occupied by Nazi Germany. At the same time, based on the life story of Wilma and Georg Iggers, the intention is to encourage people in our present day to show civil courage and democratic action in the face of racist and xenophobic tendencies in our societies. In detail, the didactically prepared project is aimed at
- High school students and teachers in the subjects of history, social science, religious studies, and pedagogy
- University students and lecturers
- People interested in history, politics and Jewish culture.
Thanks and support
Our special thanks go to Prof. Dr. Wilma Iggers (1921 - 2025) and Prof. Dr. Georg Iggers (1926 - 2017), Buffalo, N.Y. (USA) for their support and active cooperation and for providing us with extensive photographs and documents.
Partners and sponsors
- Publishing house Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen / Germany
- Publishing house Berghahn Books, New York City / USA
- filmzeit medien gmbh, Bielefeld/Germany
- Jewish Community Göttingen / Germany
- City of Esslingen am Neckar / Germany
- Základní Škola, Horšovsky Týn /Czech Republik
- DENK-ZEICHEN Association, Esslingen / Germany
- University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock / USA
- Prof. Dr. Klaus Bade, Osnabrück / Germany
- Prof. Dr. Thomas Köhler, Dresden / Germany
- Prof. Dr. Rita Süssmuth, former President of the German Bundestag, Göttingen / Germany
Financial supporters
- Federal Foreign Office, Federal Republic of Germany
- Federal Agency for Civic Education, Berlin / Germany
- Trade Union for Education and Science, Herford / Germany
- Foundation of the Sparkasse Herford, Herford / Germany
- Central Council of Jews in Germany, Berlin / Germany
- Private donors
Authors and contributors
Screenplay
Dr. Hajo Billmann, Johannes Messelink, Dr. Heinrich Pingel
Collaboration
Hagen Aufderheide, Prof. Dr. Klaus Bade, Christine Finger, Christoph Laue, Angela Menke, Birgit Rausch
Camera
Dr. Hajo Billmann, Stefan Moritz, Alex Steffen
Intro Videos
Colin, Christine Finger, Stefan Moritz, Dr. Hajo Billmann
Translations, partially
https://www.deepl.com/de/translator https://translate.google.com/
Graphic design and programming (German and English Version)
Mathias Rausch, Michael Rausch
Data preparation
Prof. Dr. Thomas Köhler, Prof. Dr. Jan-Henning Raff, Anne Schimmeck (TU Dresden)
English Version
Mathias Rausch (About, Chapter 1 and 5, Annual Letters)
Birgit Rausch (Chapter 2, 3, and 4)
Johannes Messelink (Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 Quality Check)
Dr. Heinrich Pingel (About, Glossary, Quality Check, Annual Letters)
Overall co-ordination
Dr. Heinrich Pingel
Publisher and contact
Verein Brücken Bauen e. V. – Association for the Promotion of Intercultural Understanding
E-Mail: brueckenbauen@gmx.net