Looking back. Looking ahead. 2020-2025

202   SPEECHES | INSTITUTIONS Institutions sabotage essential remembrance work. Antisemitism – in- tolerable in all its forms – is once again seeping into society, and attacks and hostility towards Jewish people have risen at an alarming rate, especially since the Hamas terror attack on Israel on 7 October last year. Racism, nationalism, ideologies of exclusion, discrimination and prejudice are threatening our diverse, vibrant and tolerant society. Historical revisionism is laying claim to truth. And crude, ignorant right-wing populism is echoing throughout parliamentary chambers and clawing at the ballot boxes. In these critical times for the future of our society, remem- brance work is indispensable. Our collective preservation and expansion of knowledge and our collective transmission and sharing of knowledge about the crimes against humanity committed by Nazi Germany – and about their effects on subsequent generations in Germany and beyond – must never falter. True knowledge is the foundation of just remembrance. And remembrance provides us with the capacity to act and the responsibility to shape a reconciled future in which all genera- tions, communities, backgrounds and orientations belong. The days when universities stood apart as ivory towers are long gone – and for good reason. Today’s universities bear social responsibility – for the major challenges and future   issues of our time. It is this very understanding that has led the University of Regensburg to establish a partnership with the Flossenbürg Memorial, contributing to the vital future   task of remembrance as a form of knowledge work. Remembrance work stands in unity with scholarship – with the search for truth and understanding that spans our   past, present and future. Knowledge and truth are mutually dependent and aligned. The close cooperation between the University of Regensburg and the Flossenbürg Memorial   reflects the shared convictions, missions and aims that unite us. Both institutions are diverse, open-minded and interna- tionally networked communities. Both are specifically aimed at young people and shaped by encounters that transcend all boundaries. Through our joint Centre for Commemorative Culture, we are connecting the University of Regensburg and the Flossenbürg Memorial as places of knowledge and learning – personally, organisationally and through concrete projects in the fields of remembrance, research, communication and human en- counter. Together, we are following tried-and-tested paths of remembrance work and exploring new ways of bringing the past into the present and safeguarding the future of what is only seemingly consigned to the past. Some of our initiatives include collaborative research, teaching, media, digitalisation, performance and exhibition projects, as well as a Public History degree programme in which students are trained to shape the future landscape of remembrance.We also have various innovative and participatory formats of remembrance and encounter lined up for the planned Memory Lab in the former DESt building on the memorial’s quarry grounds. For many at the University of Regensburg – and for me person- ally – this unique cooperation is a deep and heartfelt com- mitment, inspired by the long-standing and forward-looking idea of the universitas as humanitas.We are so thankful for the wonderfully personal and genuinely friendly collaboration that connects Flossenbürg and Regensburg, the region and far beyond. We also stand at a historical turning point, confronted with the irreplaceable loss of direct encounters with the generation of contemporary witnesses. Soon, we will no longer be able to hear stories told in their own voices, nor will we be able to experience their willingness to challenge and unsettle or bear witness to their personal example and courage. The respon- sibility for passing on and sharing authentic knowledge of remembrance – knowledge of what so many human beings inflicted on so many others, and what must never happen to anyone ever again – now lies with all of us more than ever before: collectively, personally, institutionally and as a society. It is both an obligation and a privilege, a challenge and an opportunity – entrusted to us by the murdered, the survivors and their families. “Never again is now” is a phrase often heard these days – and rightly so. It cannot be emphasised enough. One essential requirement for fulfilling this promise is our   collective commitment to unwavering clarity of knowledge.   We must involve all parts of our changing society in a   future-oriented landscape of remembrance and just remem- brance work. Above all, we must reach out to young people through diverse formats that encourage ongoing participation, active involvement and open encounters. We must not allow the interpretation of our remembrance knowledge to fall into the hands of those who champion ignorance, denial and falsehood. It is not public and shared remembrance – nor knowledge of the truth – that divides our society or burdens our future; it is silence, the desire to forget,