SEPTEMBER 2026
Dear Reader!
We warmly welcome you to our first newsletter!
The aim of this publication is to connect the projects, organizations and interested parties implemented within the framework of the CERV-2025-CITIZENS-REM-HOLOCAUSTJEW program, and to provide us with a common information platform.
In the newsletter, we can learn about each other's upcoming programs and events; we can create an opportunity to personally participate in each other's events wherever we can; we can share online programs, thereby increasing their attendance; we can learn about each other's research, results and professional materials, which can be of help to our own work; we can introduce individual CERV projects and their activities; we can jointly build a European information and professional network that will help our work in the long term.
We believe that through cooperation we can do more to preserve and pass on the fading historical memory of the Holocaust, especially to younger generations.
As this is our first publication, we are looking forward to receiving feedback from our readers. We welcome your positive evaluations, ideas and criticisms for improvement, as we want the newsletter to become a truly useful and valuable information platform for all participants and interested parties.
Do you have a program that you would like to publish?
Please send us information about your events taking place in the coming month so that they can reach as wide a circle as possible.
We also recommend our column “A brief overview of one of the applications”, in which we would like to regularly present the applications implemented within the framework of CERV-2025-CITIZENS-REM-HOLOCAUSTJEW. We welcome applications here too!
We hope that our newsletter will provide useful assistance and new opportunities for connection to all our readers.
We wish you a pleasant reading and fruitful cooperation!
the editors:
József VASVÁRI and Ákos GYÖMBÉR
1.) SEPTEMBER 2026 MONTHLY PROGRAMS
DATE
6. September 2026 | 14:00
LOCATION
7471 Rechnitz Main Square | AUSTRIA
EVENT DESCRIPTIONRemembrance Trail / European Days of Jewish Culture 2026
Jewish Life in Rechnitz
Guided tour with Engelbert Kenyeri and Dr. Christine Teuschler.
Please register by September 4. / Free admission
Gentlemen, please wear a head covering (cemetery).
In cooperation with: Municipality of Rechnitz and RE.F.U.G.I.U.S.
MORE INFORMATION LINK FROM THE ORIGINAL NEWSLETTER
DATE
9. September 2026 | 18:00
LOCATION
Archaeological Museum, Trg Svetog Trojstva 2. Osijek | CROATIA
EVENT DESCRIPTIONOpening of the Exhibition
The travelling exhibition “Jewish Population in Croatia Before, During and After the Holocaust”, created by Dr. Melita Švob, was developed as part of a project of the CENDO Research and Documentation Centre. The exhibition and its author will be presented by Associate Professor Dr. Dubravka Švob Štrac.
PRISMA activities in WP1 (Jewish Community of Osijek)
MORE INFORMATION LINK FROM THE ORIGINAL NEWSLETTER
DATE
12. September 2026 | 19:00
LOCATION
Urania Cinema, Ulica Vjekoslava Hengla 1. Osijek | CROATIA
EVENT DESCRIPTIONFilm Screening: The Conference (Die Wannseekonferenz)
On 20 January 1942, high-ranking representatives of the Nazi regime gathered at a villa on Lake Wannsee in Berlin for a meeting that would become known in history as the Wannsee Conference. During this meeting, the administrative and organisational details for implementing the so-called “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” – the systematic murder of Europe’s Jews – were discussed and coordinated.
The 2022 film The Conference (Die Wannseekonferenz) depicts the course of this historic meeting, during which Nazi officials discussed deportations, concentration camps, and the mass murder of millions of people in a cold and bureaucratic language.
PRISMA activities in WP1 (Jewish Community of Osijek)
MORE INFORMATION LINK FROM THE ORIGINAL NEWSLETTER
DATE
16. September 2026 | 10:30
LOCATION
City Library and Reading Room, Ul. Bana Josipa Jelačića 30, Đakovo | CROATIA
EVENT DESCRIPTIONPresentation of the Picture Book “Bianka’s Story”
The picture book Bianka’s Story was created with the aim of preserving the memory of Bianka Levi Auslender, a girl from Sarajevo who, during the Second World War, was imprisoned together with her mother, grandmother, and sister in the Đakovo concentration camp.
PRISMA activities in WP1 (Jewish Community of Osijek)
MORE INFORMATION LINK FROM THE ORIGINAL NEWSLETTER
DATE
16. September 2026 | 17:00
LOCATION
Urania Cinema, Ulica Vjekoslava Hengla 1. Osijek | CROATIA
EVENT DESCRIPTIONFilm Screening: When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl)
Set in 1933, the film follows nine-year-old Anna Kemper, who is forced to flee Germany with her family after her father, a prominent Jewish theatre critic, writer, and outspoken opponent of the Nazi regime, becomes a target of persecution.
PRISMA activities in WP1 (Jewish Community of Osijek)
MORE INFORMATION LINK FROM THE ORIGINAL NEWSLETTER
DATE
21. September 2026 | 13:45
LOCATION
Elementary School "Mladost", Sjenjak 7, Osijek | CROATIA
EVENT DESCRIPTIONPresentation of the Picture Book “Bianka’s Story”
Based on Bianka Levi Auslender’s authentic testimony, the picture book presents children and young people with a sensitive and age-appropriate story of a wartime childhood, loss, fear, but also hope, resilience, and the importance of remembrance.
PRISMA activities in WP1 (Jewish Community of Osijek)
MORE INFORMATION LINK FROM THE ORIGINAL NEWSLETTER
DATE
22. September 2026 | 12:00
LOCATION
Medical High School, Vukovarska cesta 209, Osijek | CROATIA
EVENT DESCRIPTIONPresentation of the Picture Book “Bianka’s Story”
The picture book was created as part of the project Bianka’s Story – A Memory That Teaches Us, through the joint work of students and teachers from Vladimir Nazor Primary School and A. G. Matoš Grammar School in Đakovo.
PRISMA activities in WP1 (Jewish Community of Osijek)
MORE INFORMATION LINK FROM THE ORIGINAL NEWSLETTER
DATE
25. September 2026 | 18:00
LOCATION
Cultural Center, First-floor foyer, Ulica kneza Trpimira 2A, Osijek | CROATIA
EVENT DESCRIPTIONOpening of the Exhibition
“Between Fame and Oblivion: Lea Deutsch – A Child Star and Holocaust Victim”
A star of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, Lea Deutsch’s promising career was brutally interrupted by the racial laws of the Independent State of Croatia and the Holocaust. As a Jewish girl, she was banned from education and performing, and she lost her life in 1943 during deportation to Auschwitz.
PRISMA activities in WP1 (Jewish Community of Osijek)
MORE INFORMATION LINK FROM THE ORIGINAL NEWSLETTER
2.) DON'T MISS THE ONLINE EVENTS
30.October 2026 / PRE-REGISTRATION / OPENEVENT DESCRIPTION
Join the launch of WITNESS-REM, an EU-funded project that strengthens Holocaust remembrance across Europe and addresses rising antisemitism, historical distortion, denial, hate, and disinformation.
MORE INFORMATION LINK FROM THE ORIGINAL NEWSLETTER
3.) MEET A PROJECT
(a brief overview of one of the applications)
POJECT NAME
WITNESS-REM
We Inspire ToleranceNever Ending Shoah StoryRemembrance
PROPOSAL
The project WITNESS-REM seeks to strengthen Holocaust remembrance across Europe by addressing alarming gaps in historical knowledge, rising antisemitism, and the risks of distortion and denial.
Through a transnational consortium of partners from Hungary, Austria, Germany, Ukraine, and Portugal, the initiative combines in-situ remembrance, intergenerational dialogue, and innovative digital tools to foster awareness, empathy, and democratic resilience among young people aged 13–22, descendants of survivors, and communities at large. WITNESS-REM develops 26 work packages (2026–2028) that integrate study visits to concentration camps, ghettos, and memorials with urban memory initiatives, digital archives, webinars, and peer-to-peer workshops.
Starting in Cascais, the European Capital of Democracy 2026, and closing in Strasbourg at the Council of Europe’s Congress and Youth Centre, the project anchors remembrance in symbolic European spaces while ensuring wide geographic and cultural reach. Participants will critically engage with history through survivor testimonies, creative writing, simulation games, and structured dialogues with peers, including those vulnerable to radicalization.
By combining factual learning with interactive methods, WITNESS-REM equips young ambassadors to transmit Holocaust memory within schools, communities, and networks. Its inclusive and gender-sensitive approach ensures accessibility for diverse participants, including marginalized groups, and highlights overlooked narratives such as women’s and children’s experiences during the Holocaust.
The project delivers durable outcomes—digital exhibitions, toolkits, and ambassador networks—that extend beyond the funding period. In doing so, it reinforces the EU Strategy on Combating Antisemitism (2021–2030), promotes pluralism and human rights, and contributes to building a shared, democratic European memory culture resilient against hate, disinformation, and extremism.
CONSORTIUM
• Central-European Club Pannonia Association / COO
• Deutsche Gesellschaft e. V.
• European Capital of Democracy
• Foster Europe
• Instituto Padre António Vieira
• Public Association Hungarian Tourism Council of Zakarpattya
🌐 Website
📘 Social media
4.) MONTHLY MEMORIAL DAYS
01 SEPTEMBER 1941
The Yellow Star
On September 1, 1941, a police decree was issued requiring Jews over the age of six in the German Reich to wear a yellow Star of David in public. The measure was part of the systematic persecution, stigmatization and exclusion of Jews and preceded the deportations and mass murder.
03 SEPTEMBER 1941
Auschwitz – first Zyklon B gassing
On this day, Zyklon B was used for the first time at Auschwitz to murder prisoners. Around 600 Soviet prisoners of war and approximately 250 sick Polish prisoners were killed in the basement of Block 11.
09 SEPTEMBER 1941
Slovakia – the So-Called Jewish Code
On this day, the so-called Jewish Code, a comprehensive antisemitic legal framework, was introduced in Slovakia. It became one of the most extensive anti-Jewish legal measures in wartime Europe.
19 SEPTEMBER 1941
Kyiv
German forces occupied Kyiv on September 19, 1941. Ten days later, on September 29–30, the mass murder of Kyiv’s Jewish population took place at Babyn Yar.
23 SEPTEMBER 1943
National Memorial Day for the Genocide of the Jews of Lithuania
The day commemorates the final liquidation of the Vilnius Ghetto on September 23, 1943. Thousands of Jews were deported or murdered as the ghetto was liquidated.
29–30 SEPTEMBER 1941
Babyn Yar
German SS and police units and their auxiliaries murdered 33,771 Jews from Kyiv at Babyn Yar during these two days. It was one of the largest mass shootings at a single location during the Holocaust.
September reminds us that persecution did not begin with mass murder.
It began with identification, exclusion, discrimination and the gradual removal of rights.
5.) CALL TO ACTION / HAVE AN EVENT TO SHARE?
Are you organising a Holocaust remembrance event next month?
Send us:
Date • Location (country, city) or Online • Event description • Link to WP or registrationNEXT deadline: 25th of September 2026!SEND YOUR EVENT
“Co-Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the
author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European
Commission CERV-2025-CITIZENS-REM-HOLOCAUSTJEW. Neither the European Union nor the
granting authority can be held responsible for them.”
