We are pleased to share this Open Call for Membership from the European Sites of Holocaust Memory (ESHEM) initiative:
The aim is to connect people and organisations that safeguard historical Holocaust sites.
Through peer exchange, shared visibility, and collaboration, the network will strengthen its members’ roles in research, education, and commemoration, at a time when responsibility for preserving Holocaust memory increasingly rests with sites and their custodians.
• Museums and memorial institutions
• Local initiatives
• Community groups
• Associations and individual custodians of Holocaust-related sites
For the purposes of the ESHEM network, a Holocaust site is defined as:
a geographically identifiable location, or group of interconnected locations, that holds direct historical, cultural, or memorial significance related to the persecution, deportation, and genocide of Jews during the Shoah. These are sites where Jews were persecuted or killed by Nazis, their collaborators, and accomplices, often also marked by the genocide of the Roma and Sinti, and crimes committed against other victim groups.
This definition includes, but is not limited to: ghettos, concentration camps, killing centres and other killing sites, transit points, and places of resistance, hiding, and rescue — both commemorated and uncommemorated. It also covers contemporary institutions and initiatives (such as museums and memorials) that are physically located at these sites or serve as their custodians.