Persecuted as “Asocials” and “Career Criminals” under Nazism and Fascism in Europe
The fourth edition of EUROM’s annual series Subaltern Memories will focus on the so-called “disavowed” — people labelled as “asocials” and “career criminals” under Nazism and Fascism. This year’s event is jointly organised by the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the NS Documentation Centre of the City of Cologne, with the collaboration of Catalonia International, , a public-private consortium that connects Catalan institutions and citizens with partners worldwide.
The conference explores the persecution and ongoing marginalisation of these groups in European memory and accompanies the exhibition “The Disavowed. Victims of National Socialism 1933–1945–Today”, on display in Cologne from 8 October 2025 to 4 January 2026.
Discussions will address the ideological, legal, and institutional frameworks that underpinned persecution in Germany, occupied territories, and allied fascist states such as Francoist Spain. Researchers will also examine the personal experiences of the persecuted, their silenced voices, and the enduring social exclusion that continued after 1945.
A guided tour of the exhibition with curators Ulrich Baumann, Oliver Gaida, Laura López Mras, and Christa Schikorra will take place on 6 November at 4:00 p.m..
Registration is open until November 1, 2025 through this form. For more information, please contact: [email protected]
Download the full programme in PDF
Background information
Between 1933 and 1945, authorities and police took up social prejudices. They controlled, harassed, and deprived tens of thousands of people of their freedom. Many were murdered. The ideological reference point was the concept of the »German national community« (»Volksgemeinschaft«). Its establishment was supposed to be achieved through the violent enforcement of an›order of inequality‹.
To what extent did these principles of order play a role in the subjugation of large parts of Europe and its millions of non-German populations from 1938/39 onwards? In occupied Europe, robbery, forced labour, and racist, anti-Romani, and antisemitic mass murder were at the heart of Nazi policy. Nevertheless: In addition to this main stream policy of extermination, the German occupiers enforced exclusionary concepts of order against traditionally marginalised groups. As inside Germany, they relied primarily on hereditary biological assumptions (»social racism«).
The research on this topic is still in its infancy and not very synchronised. An assessment in relation to the overall history of German rule in Europe is missing. Key questions at the conference shall therefore be: What is the connection between the persecution of »asocials« and »career criminals« in Germany and the occupied territories? Is it a profitable research approach and is it even legitimate in terms of memory politics to focus on practices of exclusion of marginalised groups in the German-occupied territories – or, conversely, is there a danger of dilution, a risk of losing sight of the overall dimensions and main intentions of the German occupation regime by incorporating such intersectional perspectives and by focussing on these exclusionary aspects of persecution?
On the one hand, the conference focuses on the legal frameworks and the respective institutions of persecution in individual occupied territories and allied fascist states like Spain under the rule of Franco’s dictatorship. On the other hand, it focuses in particular on the individual experiences of those persecuted and aspects of remembrance culture. Where did the persecuted speak? Can the rumour that they left no sources of their own be refuted? In post-war Europe, marginalising stereotypes persisted, compensation was refused to those affected, and their experiences of injustice are denied. Continuities of exclusion persist to this day. The conference therefore also looks at legal concepts and police practices today.
Agenda
November 6, 2025
4:00 p.m. – Guided tour of the exhibition with curators Ulrich Baumann, Oliver Gaida, Laura López Mras, and Christa Schikorra
06:00 p.m. – Keynote by the organisers and supporting iinstitutions
- Henning Borgräffe, director of the NS-DOK
- Marie Kapretz, Head of the Delegation of the Catalan Government to Germany
- Ulrich Baumann, Deputy Director of the Memorial Foundation of the Murdered Jews of Europe
- Jordi Guixé, director of the EUROM
06:30 p.m. – Round Table: Over a Decade of Struggle for the »Disavowed«: What’s Been Achieved?
- Andreas Kranebitter, Wien, Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance (DÖW)
- Ines Eichmüller, Nuremberg, Association for the Remembrance of the Disavowed Victims of National Socialism (Vevon)
- Daniel Haberlah, Braunschweig, relative and historian,Association for the Remembrance of the Disavowed Victims of National Socialism (Vevon)
- Ulrike Winkler, Trier, Advisory Board of the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
November 7, 2025
09:30 a.m. – Opening Words
10:00 a.m. – First Panel: Continuities and Changes of Exclusionary Politics – Experiences in Different Systems of Rule
- César Lorenzo Rubio, Barcelona
Criminalization of Social Deviance in Franco’s Dictatorship: from Vagrancy to Dangerousness Law (1933-1978) - Øystein Hetland, Oslo
Anomaly or Continuity? The Persecution of »Outsiders« in Occupied Norway - Jens Jäger, Cologne
Not so Hidden Persecution – Interpols Activity During WWII
11:45 a.m. – Second Panel: Unknown Persecution in Occupied Territories – Untold Stories of Violence
- Pavla Plachá, Prague
»Protection of the National Community« in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia Overlooked Fates of the »Asocials« and »Career Criminals« Deported to Ravensbrück Concentration Camp - Jérôme Courtoy / Daniel Thilman, Esch-sur-Alzette / Luxembourg
Denied, Forgotten,Rediscovered: Social-racist Persecution in Occupied Luxembourg - Rense Havinga, Groesbeek
Researching Prisoners Labelled as »Asocial« in Concentration Camps in the Netherlands
02:15 p.m. – Third Panel: Memories, Memorials, Members of Subaltern Groups
- Joanna Ostrowska, Warsaw
History of Marginalized Groups and Their Place in the Polish Politics of Memory - Núria Ricart Ulldemolins, Barcelona
Memory as Process. Les Corts Women’s Prison – an Unfinished Place - Pascal Luongo, Marseille
Marseille 1943, a City and Its Inhabitants Targeted: Anatomy of a Crime Against Humanity
04:00 p.m. – Closing remarks
Stefanie Endlich, Berlin
Organising Committee
- Ulrich Baumann and Oliver Gaida (Foundation Memorial)
- Henning Borgräffe (NS-DOK)
- Oriol López-Badell (EUROM)
- Laura Molinos- Solà (Catalonia International)
Press Release
Cologne hosts the fourth EUROM conference dedicated to the Subaltern Memories (October 31, 2025)
Survey
This activity is co-financed by the European Commission and for its evaluation we kindly ask your collaboration in filling out this survey. You will need the information indicated below. Thank you very much!
- Reference of the Project: 101194553
- Type of activity: Awareness-raising
- Title: Subaltern Memories 2025