“The memory must never be allowed to end”
Nahїa Tournay from France works at the House of the Wannsee Conference Memorial Centre, where she provides people with information about the Holocaust. She talks about her work.
Clara Krug,
26.01.2024 
I have a very personal relationship with Holocaust remembrance work, it is closely linked to me and my family. This mainly has to do with my great-grandfather Georges. He was deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp in April 1943 and was liberated in May 1945. My family has always spoken very openly about this terrible experience and the horrific time. It is particularly important to me that the memory of the Holocaust never ends and that I contribute to it.
Information on the Wannsee Conference
After completing my bachelor's degree in political science, I therefore decided to do a voluntary year at the Memorial and Educational Site House of the Wannsee Conference. The memorial is about the so called Wannsee Conference that took place on 20 January 1942. Here, the Holocaust, which had already begun, was organised in detail by high-ranking Nazi officials. The current exhibition shows, for example, who took part in the meeting, what German society and citizens knew about the persecutions, what consequences the meeting had, and the exhibition also provides information about dealing with the past after 1945.
Voluntary year at the House of the Wannsee Conference
I have been involved with the topic of remembrance culture since my youth and have repeatedly taken part in remembrance projects for young people, for example visiting the memorials of Natzweiler-Struthof and Auschwitz concentration camps. Here at the House of the Wannsee Conference, I now give guided tours myself and help colleagues who give workshops and seminars. At the moment, for example, we are preparing a workshop for military personnel In addition to the history of the Holocaust, it will also deal with the topic of discrimination in general.
I will probably start my master’s degree next autumn. The one year here in Berlin is a very good break for me between the two degrees’ programs.
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Nahїa Tournay is 21 years old and comes from France. Since September 2023 she has been doing a voluntary year at the Memorial and Educational Site House of the Wannsee Conference through Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste (Action Reconciliation Service for Peace).
