Looking back. Looking ahead. 2020-2025

FOREWORDS   5 At the same time, we are developing innovative education- al approaches. Our range of digital services opens up new gateways to the past while respecting the victims’ dignity and complementing – not replacing – visits to the authentic sites. Young people are at the heart of our work. They form the bridge between the historical past and a democratic future. Looking back provides them with historical understanding; looking ahead inspires them to act as guardians of our   democracy. Remembrance is not an end in itself – it serves the present   and the future.We are grateful to everyone who supports our work with dedication and sensitivity: our staff, our sponsors, our volunteers and every visitor who is willing to engage with history. The coming years will be decisive.We will continue our   work – with respect for the past and responsibility for future generations. We remember.We honour.We act. Munich, October 2025 Karl Freller Director of the Bavarian Memorial Foundation Ladies and Gentlemen, We can look back on years of intensive work – years in which the landscape of remembrance has changed profoundly.   The year 2025 marks a historic turning point: 80 years after   the liberation of the concentration camps, the voices of   contemporary witnesses are gradually fading. Now it falls   to us, the next generations, to ensure that their memories   are not lost. We see this responsibility not as a burden, but as a calling: Remembrance is not about looking back with nostalgia, but about shaping the future. Every look back is also a look ahead – to the society we aspire to be, the values we must defend and the democracy we must continually uphold.Where personal encounters with contemporary witnesses once touched our hearts, we now need to foster this emotional connection through new formats. In times of social polarisation, concentration camp memori- als are more important than ever as authentic sites. They are stone witnesses that endure when human voices fall silent. The barracks, roll call areas and walls speak a language that tolerates no relativisation. They stand as irrefutable evidence against denial and historical revisionism – and as democratis- ing spaces where abstract history becomes tangible experi- ence. To preserve these authentic sites and make them accessible as places for learning about democracy, the Bavarian Memorial Foundation works continuously to develop them. And we are advancing swiftly: The historic Wurmstein quarry in Flossen- bürg, a site of forced labour, is now being integrated into our memorial work. The bunker arch of the former Mühldorf   subcamp complex has been acquired by the Foundation to   create a third significant site of remembrance. And the Foundation is currently in constructive talks with the town of Dachau regarding the former “herb garden” of the Dachau concentration camp. Karl Freller, MdL Director of the Bavarian Memorial Foundation ©Bavarian Memorial Foundation