Looking back. Looking ahead. 2020-2025

170   SPEECHES | POLITICS AND SOCIETY Politics and Society ©Bavarian Memorial Foundation / T. Hase Honourable State Minister Roth, Dear State Minister Florian Herrmann, Dear Director Charly Freller, Dear Mr Naor, Dear Mr Grube, Dear Contemporary Witnesses, Dear Ms Knobloch, Dear Mr Schuster, Ladies and Gentlemen, I hope you understand that not everything I say this evening will be new.We are all speaking about the Bavarian Memorial Foundation, so some points will naturally be repeated – albeit in different words. I hope you also understand that, as Minister of Education, I have nothing against repetition. After all,   repetition is a pedagogical principle. It is something we   practise with our students – and it often has a lasting effect. Our Free State of Bavaria is a land of outstanding monu- ments – monuments like the beautiful Residenz, where we are gathered today. But our local heritage is not only beauty and grandeur – it also includes the responsibility to remember the darkest chapters of Bavarian history. And that is exactly what we do at significant sites like Dachau and Flossenbürg. More than one million people visit these two memorials each year – a staggering and impressive figure! Our aim is to increase this number through a range of initia- tives in the coming years. I firmly believe that everyone should visit these or similar sites at least once in their lifetime. It is therefore our aim – and my personal mission – to ensure that schoolchildren are not only given the opportunity to visit memorials, but are actively encouraged to do so. Every pupil in Bavaria should visit a memorial at least once during their school years. As the number of contemporary witnesses continues to decline, memorials and remembrance work are more important than ever before. Prof. Michael Piazolo, MdL Bavarian State Minister of Education and Culture and Chairman of the Foundation Council Ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the Bavarian Memorial Foundation at the Munich Residenz  19 June 2023 Ladies and Gentlemen, We have gathered here today to celebrate two decades of remembrance work. After the SecondWorldWar, the path to establishing the Bavarian Memorial Foundation was long. Initially, post-war Germany was dominated by denial, conceal- ment, even self-pity. There was even a danger that memorials would be used to forget the past. It was the few survivors who took on the task of remembrance. We owe it to victims’ associations and civil society initiatives that these places of remembrance exist today. They were true grassroots movements. I would like to extend my gratitude to all those initiatives that paved the way to remembrance – and continue their outreach to this day.Without them, so much would have been lost. Thank you to those who were there when it all began: Mr Naor and Mr Grube. Your daily work has been invaluable for a number of decades. Thank you! I am particularly grateful for your work with schools.When school groups visit Dachau or Flossenbürg, history comes alive. But it is especially meaningful for them to meet contemporary witnesses and come face to face with those who suffered in the camps and can testify to their experiences. There are fewer and fewer contemporary witnesses with us today. That is why it is so important to us that they continue this work, that they visit schools and that they convey to students what happened in the concentration camps. Their personal testimonies give our history a sense of realness. So, I would like to thank all   contemporary witnesses once again. And, from the bottom of my heart, I urge you to do everything you can to stay healthy and continue your work.We need you! We really do! Thank you!