With the onset of the pandemic and the need to move events and educational programmes into the digital space, the Leipzig Forced Labour Memorial came up with the idea of making topics and content from our daily work available to the public in the form of audio features. In 2020 and 2021, the Memorial produced two audio features to mark two days of remembrance. These provide information about the history of the former sites of forced labour in Leipzig and commemorate the crimes committed there by the Nazis by reading extracts from testimonies. This gives a voice to the victims and witnesses of the crimes.

In the winter of 2020/2021 we had the idea of starting our own podcast. In several episodes entitled Memorial Meets Scholarship, the Memorial opened a dialogue with historians and scholars from related disciplines about current research on forced labour and Nazi crimes in Leipzig and the region. In the format Memorial Meets ..., which was developed at the same time, staff members of the Memorial spoke with representatives of remembrance and commemoration initiatives in rural areas of Saxony about their work and current projects.

A total of thirteen podcast episodes were produced, which were broadcast on local free radio and can be downloaded from a free streaming platform at the following link: https://www.mixcloud.com/GfZL/ (in German). They are aimed at anyone interested in gaining an insight into the research and work of the memorial and the projects of other places of remembrance and commemorative initiatives in Saxony. The basic idea was to provide a low-threshold introduction to selected topics in the form of short and understandable articles, independent of a visit to a place of remembrance or a lecture.

In the case of the Forced Labour Memorial, the podcasts were produced by members of a small group of mostly volunteers who worked together to select topics for the broadcasts, create a concept for the content of each episode and conduct interviews with the relevant interviewees. They were also all involved in the technical side of the production, which was done without any professional equipment, using a recording device or smartphone and a free editing programme. The production of short audio features is also very suitable for educational projects with young people. They provide a participatory, hands-on and creative way of approaching and exploring history. Participants can set their own focus, create media content according to their interests and gain skills in media use and application.

Contact
Gedenkstätte für Zwangsarbeit Leipzig
Permoserstr. 15, 04318 Leipzig
Phone: 0341- 235 2075
Email: bildung@zwangsarbeit-in-leipzig.de
Contact person: Anja Kruse

All audio features by the Memorial are available free online at https://www.mixcloud.com/GfZL/