Names spray against oblivion
Commemorative event on 10 May, inner courtyard of Chemnitz University of Technology, Straße der Nationen 62
On Tuesday, 10 May, from 3.30 pm, the City of Chemnitz and the Buntmacher:innen will commemorate the victims of National Socialist tyranny and the first deportation train that left Chemnitz for the Bełżyce ghetto on 10 May 1942.
The meeting point is at the memorial stone in the courtyard of the Böttcher Building at Chemnitz University of Technology, Straße der Nationen 62. Media representatives are cordially invited.
Dagmar Ruscheinsky, Mayor for Education, Social Affairs, Youth, Culture and Sport, will welcome the participants of the event. Among them are also members of the Jewish Community of Chemnitz. The inner courtyard of Chemnitz University of Technology was the assembly point for the deportations in 1942.
Afterwards, the names of 134 deported people from Chemnitz and the surrounding area will be sprayed with chalk on the footpath between Chemnitz University of Technology and the main railway station. The commemorative action will end at the main railway station, where the names of all 134 deportees will be read out at around 4.30 pm. A memorial disc has also commemorated the victims there since 2015.
The large-scale planned deportations of the Jewish population began 80 years ago in Saxony and Thuringia; more than a thousand Jewish people were deported from Thuringia and Saxony on 10 May 1942.
The City of Chemnitz's campaign with the Buntmacher:innen will be framed by the readings entitled "Das demokratische Chemnitz liest!" (Democratic Chemnitz reads!), which commemorate the book burnings by the Nazis in 1933. A reading of burnt literature will take place immediately beforehand from 2.30 pm to 3.15 pm at the same location in the courtyard of Chemnitz University of Technology, Straße der Nationen 62. Afterwards, there will also be a reading at the main railway station from 4.30 to 5.30 pm.
The reading event "Das demokratische Chemnitz liest!" starts on Tuesday, 10 May, at sunrise at 5.27 am and ends at sunset at 8.43 pm. Chemnitz University of Technology is one of eleven different locations where burnt and suppressed literature will be read. Please also note the invitation sent out yesterday to the press conference on Friday, 6 May at 11 a.m. in the office of the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025 GmbH (Schmidtbank-Passage, Hartmannstraße 3A).
Note: The press release was corrected on 4 May.