AI disclosure: This English version was translated from the German original with the assistance of artificial intelligence.
Ahead of the official dedication ceremony of the Memorial to Jehovah’s Witnesses Persecuted and Murdered under National Socialism, a press conference was held on June 18, 2026 at the Information Centre of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. The digital knowledge portal on the persecution and resistance of Jehovah’s Witnesses, created to accompany the memorial, was also presented and launched at biographien-verfolgter-zeugen-jehovas.de. The Arnold-Liebster-Stiftung initiated the project and funded its preparatory phase. Created in 2025/26, the portal is run by the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It received funding from the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ Foundation) and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) as part of the “JUGEND erinnert vor Ort & engagiert” program. Its cooperation partners are the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin and Verein Lila Winkel in Austria.
The portal already contains hundreds of biographies of Jehovah’s Witnesses who were persecuted under National Socialism. Many of them were murdered. It also includes biographies of members of the religious community who were persecuted in the GDR after 1945. The portal’s content goes far beyond a collection of biographies. At its heart is an interactive map of Europe. It enables users to explore residential, persecution, resistance and remembrance sites connected with the people featured. The portal now lists more than 800 locations of various kinds: homes outside which Stolpersteine have been laid; secret literature depots used by the religious community; courthouses and prisons; concentration camps; streets named after Jehovah’s Witnesses; and monuments and other commemorative markers.
In addition to pages about biographies and locations, the portal offers a list of abbreviations, an extensive bibliography and an encyclopedia. The encyclopedia explains key terms relating to the history of Jehovah’s Witnesses. It will be expanded gradually, as will the section containing country chronologies. Chronologies of the history of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany and Poland are currently available.
The digital knowledge portal is aimed at descendants of persecuted Jehovah’s Witnesses, people interested in history, local history societies, Stolperstein initiatives, memorial institutions, schools and history clubs. It can be used to trace the regional history of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Interested users can conduct their own research and—especially in schools—develop their own contributions in consultation with the project team. The information already available can also support preparations for future Stolperstein laying ceremonies and themed city tours.
Historians and volunteer researchers contributed to the development of the portal, drawing on their extensive knowledge of regional history (citizen science). Six youth project groups also took part: three from eastern Germany and three from western Germany. Three groups were based at schools: the Tisa-Projektgruppe at the verbundene Regionale Schule und Gymnasium “Tisa von der Schulenburg” in Dorf Mecklenburg, a history class at the Elsa-Brändström-Gymnasium in Oberhausen and the AG “Kriegsgräber” at the Europaschule Rövershagen. The three other groups consisted of young people from local congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses. They researched the history of local persecution in Upper Lusatia, the Kassel area and Hamburg.
The young people conducted research in archives, contacted descendants of people persecuted under National Socialism, and carried out eyewitness interviews and conversations with historians and politicians. They visited the former places of imprisonment of the people they were researching, made films and produced video podcasts. They also initiated and supported Stolperstein laying ceremonies. They published the results of their research in contributions to the portal.
The highlight of the project was the official dedication ceremony for the memorial in Berlin’s Großer Tiergarten on June 24, 2026. More than 40 young people from all six project groups traveled to attend. Afterwards, a team from the Foundation took them on a dialogue-based city walk to the memorials overseen by the Foundation. This gave the participants an opportunity to get to know one another and discuss their work.
Although the portal already offers a wealth of material, it is designed as a growing project. Numerous additional biographies and locations from all over Europe will be added in the coming years. A particular focus will be the persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses under communist regimes in Eastern Europe after 1945.
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