Our history

2004

July 7, 2004: The "Festival de L’Espoir" organized in Kibuye/Rwanda and involving young people from Africa’s Great Lakes Region marks the 10th commemoration of the Rwandan genocide. In the course of the festival a group of participants creates the German-Rwandan initiative "Memos".

November 25 – December 10, 2004: Under the title "Remembering, Learning, and Commemorating in Germany and Rwanda – 44/94/04" Memos organizes a study trip to Berlin, Buchenwald and Nuremberg funded by "Zivik", a programme of IFA, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen.
 

2005

August, 2005: After a fundraising event organized by friends and acquaintances of the late Hermann Nauermann, Memos implements the first edition of the bi-annual Hermann-Nauermann-Memorial-Tournament, a football event for 14 – 16 year olds from Berlin and Brandenburg.
 

2006

March – November, 2006: Memos and the Memorial and Learning Center Beit Terezin from Israel organize the youth encounter "Football inside Concentration Camps". The project takes place in Israel and Germany and is supported by "Europeans for Peace" and the "Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future".
 

2007

May – October, 2007: Memos and Beit Terezin carry out the follow-up project in the Czech Republic entitled "Commemoration in Germany and Israel – a third-generation search for a future remembrance culture of national socialist injustice".

July – December 2007: After the association was founded on July 29, 2007, the statutes adopted by the founding members were submitted to the Berlin-Charlottenburg District Court. Memos was officially entered in the register of associations on December 20, 2007.
 

2010 – 2013

2010, 2011, 2012: The Rwandan NGO Esperance and Memos e. V. jointly organize three youth events, entitled "Four Countries for Peace", taking place in Goma (Democratic Republic of Congo), Kigali (Rwanda) and Bujumbura (Burundi). Their collaboration was funded by the German Foreign Office and the German Football Federation.

January, 2011: Memos supports the Rwandan NGO "Never Again Rwanda" in organizing "Sharing the Past – Shaping the Future", a study trip to Germany and Poland, focused on the pedagogy of remembrance. The project was organized and funded by the Civil Peace Service in Rwanda.

July 14 – 28, 2011: Memos supports the youth initiatives "Wilhelmstraße 77" and "Trieste Tropen" in realizing "Reflecting Colonialism", a project financed by the German National Agency "Jugend in Europa".

March – July, 2012: Collaboration with the Youth Initiative "Wer sind Helden" in organizing "Ali 70", a project funded by the EU’s "Youth in Action" program.

May, 2012 – March, 2013: In the context of the Memos-project "Youth under the Swastika", young Berliners interview contemporary witnesses in regards to their upbringing in National Socialist Germany. Financial support was provided by Berlin’s Youth and Family Foundation (JFSB).
 

2015/2016

November, 2015 – September, 2016: Memos e. V. and the Bosnian Institute for Youth Development KULT coordinate "Between Diversity and Division", a youth encounter held in Sarajevo and Berlin, funded by Europeans for Peace/EVZ.
 

2016

March – October, 2016: Conception and coordination of the two-part Erasmus+ project "Recollecting the Future". 30 professionals and volunteers active in the youth field in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Croatia and Germany participate in activities in Petrovac/Montenegro and Sarajevo/Bosnia-Hercegovina.
 

2017/2018

March, 2017 – February, 2018: Conception and coordination of the three-part Erasmus+ project "Brain Drain, Brain Gain + Circular Migration" 42 youth workers from 7 South-Eastern and Central European countries are involved in activities carried out in North Macedonia, Bosnia-Hercegovina and Germany.
 

2018/2019

February, 2018 – January, 2019: Conception and coordination of the three-part Erasmus+ project "Boosting Transversal Skills". Youth and youth workers from England, Germany and 5 South-Eastern European countries take part in three mobility activities in the UK, Bosnia and North Macedonia.
 

2019

March – September, 2019: Implementation of the German-Rwandan extracurricular youth encounter "Sharing the Past – Shaping the Future" in accordance with Agenda 2030, funded by Engagement Global on behalf of Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
  

2020/2021

September, 2020 – March, 2021: Memos supports the Rwandan artist Kivumbi King to design and present the project "More About Richard Kandt" financed by the Goethe Institutes in Cameroon and Namibia in the framework of their "Burden of Memory Project Fund 2020".
  

2021/2022

March, 2021 – February, 2022: Inspired by the learning outcomes achieved through the production of the video essay "More About Richard Kandt", Memos has developed a concept combining formal and non-formal education on colonialism and responsibility in Berlin schools. The undertaking has been supported by Berlin’s Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family and the Foundation Nord-Süd-Brücken.
 

2023/2024

June, 2023 – February, 2024: In preparation of the German-Israeli youth encounter "From Prague to Prague", Memos joined forces with the European Holocaust Memorial Foundation in Landsberg. The Memos website showcases the liberation of the Kaufering IV concentration camp. Photographs taken by US-soldiers are interlaced with excerpts from a former camp prisoner, a letter written by a US-soldier and a report by a Kaufering railroad official.
 

2024

January – December 2024: Based on the learning experiences of the 2019 youth encounter "Sharing the Past – Shaping the Future", Memos and Never Again Rwanda have carried out a study project with the aim to reflect upon the power imbalances intrinsic to partnerships between youth organisations operating in the global south and those based in Germany. The activities were supported by Engagement Global and Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and committed to improving the impact of upcoming transnational youth exchange programmes.
 

2024/2025

March 2024 – September 2025: Within EVZ’s funding program YOUNG PEOPLE remember international, Memos, in cooperation with the Israeli research and educational institution Beit Terezin and the European Holocaust Memorial Foundation organized a study trip for young people from Israel and Germany. Together, they traced Max Livni’s survival of the National Socialist camps and killing sites Theresienstadt, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Landsberg-Kaufering and München-Allach including the deportations and death marches in between.