As our societies undergo significant change, and as the generation of Survivors and direct witnesses gradually disappears, Memorial Sites carry a continuing responsibility: to raise awareness of the past, actively encourage reflection in our contemporary society, and signal and resist dehumanization, racism, antisemitism, and xenophobia wherever they arise.
In fulfilling this responsibility, Memorial Sites occupy a distinct position. Basing on rigorous research and historical evidence, they are detached from private interests, independent, and have a critical voice, including in relation to political developments and all forms of hate speech. This requires that Memorial Sites remain places for difficult questions and that they can offer warnings when this is called for.
This task can only be sustained where Memorial Sites are guaranteed programmatic independence from political authority: local, regional, national, or European. Their intellectual and practical autonomy should not be subject to political or budgetary pressure.
As custodians of a history that affected the whole of Europe, their independence is not solely an internal matter for their respective governing bodies, but a shared interest of Europe as such.
To confront the growing challenges for democracy and peace, we call on all parties involved in public dialogue to respect this principle of autonomy.
List of signatories, in the alphabetic order of the names of historical sites
- Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, Poland
- National Historical and Memorial Reserve Babyn Yar, Ukraine
- Death March Memorial in Below Forest, Germany
- Bergen-Belsen Memorial, Germany
- Memorial to the Victims of the Euthanasia Murders Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany
- Brandenburg-Görden Prison Memorial, Germany
- Buchenwald Memorial, Germany
- Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial, Germany
- Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Memorial, Germany
- Museum of the Martyrdom of the Citizens of Wielkopolska Fort VII, Poland
- Fossoli Foundation, Italy
- Gross-Rosen Museum in Rogoźnica, Poland
- Memorial Site Hartheim Castle, Austria
- Hodonín u Kunštátu. Memorial to the Holocaust of the Roma and Sinti in Moravia, Czech Republic
- Memorial and Museum Jamlitz in Lieberose, Germany
- Kazerne Dossin, Belgium
- Museum of the Former German Extermination Camp Kulmhof in Chełmno nad Ner, Poland
- Memorial Leistikowstraße Potsdam, Germany
- Lety u Písku. The Memorial to the Holocaust of the Roma and Sinti in Bohemia, Czech Republic
- Maison d’Izieu, France
- Mittelbau-Dora Memorial, Germany
- Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, Germany
- KL Plaszow Memorial Museum in Kraków, Poland
- Memorial and Museum Ravensbrück, Germany
- Internment and Deportation Memorial – Royallieu Camp, France
- Memorial and Museum Sachsenhausen, Germany
- Stutthof Memorial in Sztutowo, Poland
- Camp Vught National Memorial, Netherlands
- House of the Wannsee Conference Memorial and Educational Site, Germany
- Memorial Center Camp Westerbork, Netherlands
- Wolfenbüttel Prison Memorial, Germany
- Martyrs' Museum in Żabikowo, Poland
