Rainer Lahmann-Lammert: "'Schindler oder Schwindler?' Die erinnerungskulturelle Debatte um Hans Georg Calmeyer aus journalistischer Perspektive"

Rainer Lahmann-Lammert has followed the transnational debate about the Osnabrück "Jew rescuer" Hans Georg Calmeyer (1903-1972) as a journalist since the 1990s. As editor of the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung for many years, he reported on Calmeyer's discovery as a player in the German occupation regime in The Hague. The lawyer from Osnabrück saved around 3,000 Jewish people from deportation, but many did not. He was posthumously honored by Yad Vashem as "Righteous Among the Nations" and by the city of Osnabrück with the Justus Möser Medal. The historical classification of his actions is still the subject of intense and controversial debate today. The discussion will reflect on the debate surrounding Calmeyer in terms of the culture of remembrance and the role of the media in this.


The "Topographies of Terror" serve as an intensive and critical examination of Nazi ideology and its time, particularly using regional examples. The lecture series is also generally dedicated to the phenomenon of dictatorship, authoritarian governance and their negative consequences for the open and free life of societies. In 2025, the liberation from National Socialism 80 years ago will be the occasion for various events.

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