About
Family histories of persecution, flight and survival under National Socialism continue to shape literature, cultural memory and historical education. They are often based on memories passed down by survivors, their children and grandchildren. But what happens to these memories when they become stories told through literature, film, performance or other artistic forms?
This question lies at the heart of the EU-funded project Performing Art-Based Memory Practice on Jewish Holocaust Refugee Stories with University Students (MEM-ART UNI). Students in Vienna, Marseille and Wrocław interview descendants of Jewish Holocaust survivors and explore how experiences of persecution, flight and exile are remembered, narrated and transmitted across generations.
Refugee Stories Between Past and Present
MEM-ART UNI focuses on Jewish family histories of people who were forced to flee persecution by National Socialism and its allies. It asks how experiences of persecution, flight and displacement were passed on within families, where silences or gaps remain, and what these histories mean to descendants today.
By tracing the long-term and transgenerational effects of forced migration, the project places personal stories within wider historical and transnational contexts and explores how persecution and displacement continue to resonate in the present.
Students as Ambassadors of Remembrance
Students in Vienna, Wrocław, and Marseille take part in Oral History Labs, where they prepare for interviews with descendants of Jewish Holocaust survivors, research family histories and reflect on the possibilities and limits of biographical memory and oral transmission.
The interviews form the basis for Art-Based Memory Labs. Together with artists and educators, students develop film, performance and sound-based projects and explore how personal stories can be carried forward through new artistic forms.
International Collaboration
MEM-ART UNI brings together researchers, students, artists and educational organisations from Austria, Poland and France. Over two years, they develop shared approaches to Holocaust remembrance across Vienna, Wrocław and Marseille.
By bringing local family histories and different cultures of remembrance into dialogue, the project places them within a shared European context and creates connections between historical research, artistic practice and public engagement.
Funding and Consortium
MEM-ART UNI runs from 1 August 2026 to 31 July 2028 and is funded by the European Union under the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) programme.
The consortium includes the University of Vienna (Coordinator), Aix-Marseille Université, University of Wrocław, Centre Franco-Allemand de Provence, Vienna University Children’s Office, MUSMIG – Museum of Migration, Jewish Welcome Service Vienna, Arbeitsgemeinschaft Jüdisches Forum (Jewish Forum Association), and Fondation du Camp des Milles – Mémoire et Éducation.
