© Helena Schätzle/laif - Dokumentationsprojekt „Leben nach dem Überleben“ von AMCHA Deutschland e.V.
In September 2001, the EVZ Foundation approved its first funding project: the AMCHA association received € 414,138 to support Holocaust survivors in Israel to receive home visits from psychologists and social workers. This marked the beginning of a 25-year history of funding projects that continues to have an impact today.
Since its inception, the EVZ Foundation has supported over 6,000 projects with around 2,500 partner organizations in more than 40 countries with over € 313 million. The focus is on people and initiatives that take responsibility: descendants of minorities who were persecuted under National Socialism, young people, and those committed to a democratic and value-oriented civil society. The partners of the EVZ Foundation bring history and remembrance to the present in creative and innovative ways: they not only create research-based history projects but also history-conscious engagement and democracy initiatives.
A traveling exhibition by the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation, which was shown in several European cities between 2010 and 2016 and brought the forgotten chapter of Nazi forced labor into public consciousness, gave rise to a permanent memorial site in 2024: In May 2024, the Museum of Forced Labor under National Socialism was opened in Weimar.
Since 2005, the EVZ Foundation has been supporting young people with its “Young Volunteers Take Responsibility” program, which enables voluntary service in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe as well as in Israel. After all, impact also includes recognition of those who work toward common goals in projects and initiatives. Their commitment deserves respect and support.
By funding studies and publications, the EVZ Foundation contributes to scientifically documenting discrimination and exclusion and counteracting them through education. In 2011, the EVZ Foundation funded the first “Study on the Educational Situation of German Sinti and Roma.” It then set up a nationwide working group comprising representatives from the federal government, the federal states, local authorities, from academia, foundations, and Sinti and Roma self-help organizations, which formulated recommendations for equal participation in education.
The EVZ Foundation continuously responds to current social challenges in its funding – from the rise of Antisemitism in Germany and the restriction of civil society freedom in Eastern Europe to the digitization of learning. In 2021, the Bildungsstätte Anne Frank, which received funding from the EVZ Foundation, released the educational game “Hidden Codes.” In a social media simulation, young people aged 14 and older learn to recognize radicalization on the internet and respond appropriately.
