Save the Date – Launch of the online portal “Societies under German Occupation”

In recent years, the history of World War II has primarily been written as a history of Nazi expansion and its actors, often referred to as a "perpetrator history." The main focus of research has been on the Holocaust, the crimes committed by the Wehrmacht and the SS, as well as resistance movements in most formerly occupied countries. However, the situation of local populations under German occupation has remained an underrepresented area in research and documentation.

The portal provides access to sources about the daily life of societies under German occupation during World War II. It particularly focuses on the issue of hunger and scarcity. The portal is designed for a broad audience interested in research, as well as for academic and school teaching. The sources are made available for interactive work as scans of the original documents, in their original language transcriptions, and English translations. This digital source edition builds on the print edition, "Fighting Hunger. Dealing with Shortage," which was published in 2021 and recently awarded (https://rusaupdate.org/awards/best-historical-materials/).

Our project partners will be happy to welcome you on June 28, 2023, at 4:00 p.m. in the Bergisches Zimmer at the University of Wuppertal (see map). The program includes the portal launch, two keynote speeches, and several short workshop reports providing insights into the conception of the portal.

At 4:40 pm Thomas Burch will give the lecture "Digitale Editionen erstellen. Über Workflows, Werkzeuge und Datenmodelle in editionswissenschaftlichen Forschungsvorhaben". This will be followed by the launch of the portal by 'pressing the red button'. Matthias Bremm will talk about the virtual research environment and the online portal at 5:30 pm.

The project team is excited to celebrate the completion of the project and the launch of the portal with you.