Dear friends of the Connecting Memories project,
Connecting Memories is about to take an important next step: On October 14, we will be meeting our local citizen scientists in Krems for the first time and starting our research work together. (Details)
At the same time, our network continues to grow – both locally and internationally. With our newsletter we want to inform you about developments in the project, but also about concrete opportunities to contribute to the project as well as about upcoming events and reports!
“I’ve conducted research on my two grandfathers. […] The problem is, where to start, where to find the first information.” (Giovanni Alfarano, descendant citizen scientist, Italy)
Developments in the Project
Remembrance thrives on exchange – and on shared commitment. In recent weeks, the Connecting Memories project has once again gained a wide range of insights into memories of forced labour, established new collaborations and supported personal encounters.
For 20 years, the Grafenwörth Association for Local History Research has been dedicated to researching local history under the motto “So that nothing is forgotten” and has built up an extensive archive since its founding in 2006. At the anniversary celebration on 13 May, attended by local historians from the region, historian Edith Blaschitz (University for Continuing Education Krems, co-director of Connecting Memories) gave a talk about Nazi forced labour in Grafenwörth and the surrounding area, where prisoners of war from Stalag XVII B, among others, were put to work in agriculture and viticulture. The association and its chair Friedrich Ploiner are important partners of Connecting Memories – as are many other local initiatives in Lower Austria: Their knowledge, archives and local networking help to bring together local research, academic expertise and the research of descendants, thus connecting scattered information and reconstructing life stories.
On May 27 and 28, 2026, representatives of Hungarian-speaking Jewish communities from Hungary and neighbouring countries met in Debrecen for the conference “From the Past to the Present“. Alongside Kinga Frojimovics from our team, Irene Suchy and Bernhard Blank, who research the history of the Strasshof transit camp, also attended from Austria. Kinga presented the camps and forced labour sites in Vienna and Lower Austria to which Jews from the Debrecen ghetto were deported in 1944/45. This exchange is particularly valuable for our project because it allows memories from the places of origin of the deportees to be linked with local research on their places of work in Austria.
Another important local meeting with descendants of forced labourers and the local population took place in St. Veit an der Gölsen in recent months. Alexander Schatek and Markus Fürst, our cooperation partners at Topotheque, presented Connecting Memories at a meeting of the Topotheque archivists in June and invited them to get involved.
In June, a meeting took place with a small core group of local and international citizen scientists to share experiences and discuss what research in a digital space requires. We are currently feeding these insights into the development of the Connecting Memories platform and are also in close contact with the local initiative NS Zwangsarbeit Leobersdorf (Nazi Forced Labour Leobersdorf).
How can I get involved at this stage?
On October 14, 2026 at 6:30 p.m., Connecting Memories’ first meeting for local citizen scientists will take place at Campus Krems (the meeting will be held in German). Everyone who is interested in the history of Nazi forced labour in Lower Austria and would like to contribute knowledge, research, memories or their own questions is welcome.
What can you expect? After a short introduction to the project, the focus will be on conversation and exchange: At thematic tables, citizen scientists from various places in Lower Austria will show how diverse participation can be, from local history and archival research to tracing individual people and their life stories. Afterwards, there will be time over drinks to make contacts and develop initial ideas. Come by and help bring together scattered traces of Nazi forced labour!
At Connecting Memories, citizen science can take many forms. A lead on a person, a previously unknown photo, a family document or a memory that has been passed down can be an important starting point for further research. Others may want to go deeper: evaluate local sources, research in archives, trace family histories or help to gather information about individual places and people. The aim is to connect these different forms of knowledge.
Perhaps there are also previously unnoticed traces of prisoners of war and forced labourers in your family, your community or your local archive. Private photographs, letters, documents and memories in particular can significantly expand our knowledge of the history of Nazi forced labour in Lower Austria.
Join us! To make planning easier for us, we ask you to register via connectingmemories@donau-uni.ac.at
Can’t make it to Krems, but still want to participate? The next Citizen Science Meeting will take place online, please save the date:
SAVE THE DATE: Thursday, January 28, 2027, 6 p.m. Central European Time (via Zoom, English with translation to other languages)
Current Events & Media Reports
The project is planning regular events with lectures, exchange opportunities and excursions (online and offline).
The Connecting Memories team will present the project at the “Digital History” conference in Salzburg (1 October 2026), the conference “Contemporary History in Lower Austria” at the Lower Austrian State Archives in St. Pölten (26 November 2026) and at the Department of Public History at the University of Vienna (1 December 2026).
Warm regards from the Connecting Memories team!