Throughout the anniversary year 2025/26, we will be releasing a series of brief video interviews with the hashtag #25EVZVoices, featuring people who are part of the EVZ Foundation’s story and giving them an opportunity to talk about their perspectives and memories.
WHY do we have NO TIME TO FORGET – especially now? What do you want from the EVZ Foundation for the future? What do you associate with remembrance, responsibility, and future? We will put these and other questions to a select group of people who are part of the EVZ Foundation’s story. The videos will be posted on our social media channels.
Annette Schavan has been the Chair of the EVZ Foundation’s Board of Trustees since 2019. She was a member of the German Bundestag from 2005 until 2014, and Federal Minister of Education and Research from 2005 until 2013.
“Remembrance protects us from becoming blind to new dangers,” warns Annette Schavan. She associates responsibility with the fervent belief “that no generation must be allowed to ignore what has happened”, while the future “must be shaped by the way I understand the future and remember the past. Remembrance of the past and understanding of the present should be part of every path and every plan for the future.”
Günter Saathoff played a key role in preparing and drafting the Law for the Creation of the EVZ Foundation and other regulations governing compensation for victims of the NS regime. He was the EVZ Foundation’s director from 2003 until 2017.
“I associate two things with the term ‘remembrance’”, says Günter Saathoff. “First, understanding how our lives have been defined and shaped by our past, and second, remembering certain people who have suffered, people I don’t want to forget, and whom I don’t want society to forget.”
Dr. Michael Gander is the managing director of Gedenkstätten Gestapokeller und Augustaschacht e. V., the organization responsible for the Gestapokeller and Augustaschacht Memorials. He is in charge of the project “Von einem Ort des Jubels zu einem Ort des Unrechts. Zwangsarbeitslager auf Fußball- und Sportplätzen” [From a Place of Jubilation to a Place of Injustice – Forced Labor Camps on Soccer Pitches and Sports Fields], part of the Education Agenda NS-Injustice.
For Dr. Michael Gander, remembrance means “looking at history by constructing the most comprehensive picture possible, engaging with multiple perspectives and interpretations, and attempting to understand the different ways in which people act [...].”