Due to the current political events and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by the Allies, the topic of memory culture is back on everyone's lips.
While tech billionaire Elon Musk on an AfD election campaign appearance speaks that there is "too much focus on the past in Germany" (viaDaily show), demonstratedTens of thousands in many German citiesAgainst right.
In keeping with these current events and the anniversary of the Auschwitz exemption on January 27, 2025, the Arolsen Archive, the world's largest archive for Nazi victims and survivors, called on an action week.
#EveryNameCounts
What is the Arolsen archive?The archive is also the international center of Nazi persecution and answers thousands of inquiries about Nazi persecuted annually. This includes the search for missing persons or the clarification of fates. With information about 17.5 million people from victim groups of the Nazi regime, forced laborers and migrants after 1945, the archive is part of the UNESCO World Document inheritance.
Under the hashtag #everynamecounts, a total of 27,000 files are to be digitized within a week in order to make them more accessible and durable. The aim is to set a digital monument. The archive is dependent on the help of volunteers.
And that's exactly where you can come into play.
Link toTiktok
This is how you participate in the campaign
Participation is relatively easy and does not require personal data on your part. You goOn the website of the campaign, scroll down and click on the challenge to #everynamecounts. Now another window opens in which you can see scanned original documents from the Nazi era.
Since these are real documents from the concentration camps of the Nazi era, their content can be very depressing. Especially when it comes to entries from detained children.
On the right, you will receive a input mask in which you carry the data you see on the scan after some information and indications. If information or abbreviations are unclear, you can find a lot of help under the information button. If this is not enough, a forum is also available. To post there, however, you need an account.
If you are in English with you, you can change it by clicking on the account button.
Overall, you need between two and ten minutes per document - depending on how extensive and legible the data sheet is.
Against fake entries
So that documents are not incorrectly included in the system, a six-eye principle applies to the campaign. This means that each document is processed by three different volunteers. If all three inputs are identical, the digitized document is automatically adopted. If the entries do not match, the archive takes place a manual review.
Against incorrect information
The fully checked and entered data are linked as metadata part of the online archive and with the original scan. As a result, the world's largest archive is growing even further.
According to the official website, 214,847 volunteers have already participated in the campaign. It runs until January 31, 2025.
