Faces for the Names: strong first year for innovative form of Holocaust commemoration


“Bringing them back – to our eyes and minds and souls and hearts” – the motto of Faces for the Names. At these, photos of the victims of the Holocaust and members of the Resistance are projected upon the buildings in which they lived and suffered.

Launched by J.E.W.S. Jews Engaged with Society e.V. – the organization headed by Terry Swartzberg – in October 2020, Faces for the Names has quickly established itself as a powerful form of Holocaust commemoration.

Among the 27 Faces for the Names staged in 2021 were ones for the members of the Resistance who were executed in Munich’s central prison. Their faces were projected on to the jail’s outside wall.

Other headlining events: Faces for the Names for Jewish sports stars who were persecuted and killed by the Nazis. This event was held outside of Munich’s historic football stadium.

Faces for the Names 2021

Faces for the Names for members of the Resistance in Germany and Central Europe

February-March Munich

for the members of the Resistance and others executed by the Nazis in Munich‘s central prison

Location: on the prison’s outside wall

With testimony from the victims’ family members, reading of biographies

Faces for the Names for Jewish sport stars

May Munich

for Germany’s Jewish sport stars who were persecuted and murdered by the Nazis

Location: the outside wall of Munich’s historic football stadium

With a reading of these athletes’ biographies

Faces for the Names for the young members of Munich’s Resistance

July Munich

for the young members of Munich’s Resistance

with an association of students, and the reading of biographies of these heroes of the

Resistance

Faces for the Names for Lisi Block

September Rosenheim, Bavaria

for Lisi Block, “Rosenheim’s Anne Frank”, who kept a diary of her struggles to survive prior to being murdered in 1942

With readings from Lisi’s diaries

Faces for the Names Hamburg

November 2, 3, 7 Hamburg

for the victims of the Nazis and of today’s Neonazis and racists, with dozens of young people of all backgrounds

with mobile transmission, poetry written and dance performed by the young, victims of racism’s accounts of their suffering

Faces for the Names Reichspogromnacht in Munich

November 9 – 14 Munich

for the victims of Reichspogromnacht (“Kristallnacht”), which marked the beginning o the Holocaust

Location: the school attended by the young victims – and the buildings in which they lived

With commemorative music, reading of the biographies of victims

Faces for the Names for Munich’s Jews

November 25 – 30 Munich

for the 997 Munich Jews killed in Kovno, Lithuania on November 25, 1941

Location: the heart of downtown Munich

With commemorative music, worldwide broadcast via Zoom, reading of the biographies of victimsAuthor avatar

Terry