New website of the NS-DOK

A mission statement and a strategy for the NS-DOK in the coming years were developed in intensive discussions over the course of 2023. This also involved modernising the visual appearance of the NS-DOK. We are delighted that the newly conceptualised and designed website is now online.

Here you will find information about the educational and consultation offers, current exhibitions, the history of the building and much more.

14 October 2024: MBR annual report published

Swastika smearings, extreme right-wing school chats, racist incidents - we encounter right-wing extremism, racism and other forms of discrimination every day. But what should be done if you, as a private individual, group or institution, are affected by it or become aware of it?
The Mobile Advice against Right-Wing Extremism in Cologne (MBR) offers help for all those who want or need to deal with these issues in any way.
You can find out more about their work and what happened last year in the MBR annual report. 

5 September 2024: Campaign "Demokratie ist alternativlos" (There is no alternative to democracy) by the friend’s association

In view of the rise of the right-wing extremist AfD in European and state elections, EL-DE-Haus Verein e.V.  (friend’s association of the NS-Documentation Centre), in cooperation with the friends' association of the Buchenwald Memorial and its initiative "Buchenwald war überall" (Buchenwald was everywhere), is calling for a strong signal to be sent out now more than ever against right-wing extremism, nationalism, racism and antisemitism and to support the work of the NS-Documentation Centre. Support can range from joining the association or becoming a sponsoring member to making a single or regular donation. You can find more information about the campaign here.

Donations to the EL-DE-Haus Verein e.V.
Keyword: "Demokratie ist alternativlos"
IBAN: DE 03 3705 0198 0008 1922 05 
Sparkasse KölnBonn 

Donations to the friend’s association of the Buchenwald Memorial
Keyword: "Demokratie ist alternativlos"
IBAN: DE18 8205 1000 0301 0211 71
Sparkasse Mittelthüringen

27 August 2024: New guided city walk in Deutz

During the Second World War, the Cologne Trade Fair was one of the main sites of persecution in Cologne. A sub-camp of Buchenwald concentration camp, camps for forced labourers and prisoners of war, and a Gestapo barracks camp were located on the site directly on the Rhine. The prisoners suffered the most severe torments and risked their lives during bomb clearances and body recoveries after air raids. The site also served as a collection camp for Sinti and Roma as well as for people persecuted as Jews. From the nearby Deutz-tief railway station, deportations to the ghettos, concentration camps and extermination camps were carried out. On this city walk, you will learn about the history of the building complex and its use as a camp, and you will find out more about the prison and working conditions as well as individual life stories. 

23 July 2024: Annual report 2022/23 published

The new annual report of the NS-DOK is available – newly designed and uniquely as a double issue for the years 2022 and 2023. Much has happened in these two years that has not changed society for the better and has also influenced the work at the NS-DOK: the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, the Russian-led war of aggression against Ukraine, the deepening economic crisis, the growing scepticism of large sections of the population towards democracy, the strengthening of the far right, and ultimately, after the Hamas massacre in Israel on 7 October 2023, the new rise of antisemitism.

At the same time, the past two years have been marked by changes in the NS-DOK itself. The construction work for the expansion proceeded at full speed for a long time. In June 2023, the new educational and outreach programmes on the 3rd and 4th floors of the EL-DE House were inaugurated and handed over to the city. The expansion also raised questions about the future self-image and priorities of the NS-DOK. The annual report is available for download as a PDF (8.895 KB) here.

4 July 2024: New publication: Jewish perspectives on exclusion and murder in Cologne

Martin Rüther

„Und wir werden in alle Winde verstreut.“ Ausgrenzung und Ermordung der jüdischen Bevölkerung Kölns aus Perspektive der Betroffenen Bonn 2024

Based on testimonies from Jewish Cologne residents in the NS-DOK collection, this book, produced in cooperation with the Federal Agency for Civic Education, presents the exclusion and murder of the Jewish population between 1933 and 1945 from the contemporary perspective of those affected. Their depictions offer an insight into their living conditions, their fears and the hopes that kept emerging. The richly illustrated volume by Martin Rüther is supplemented by an extensive website, which provides a wealth of information, sources and other materials that go beyond Cologne.

The book is now available for €7 at the NS-DOK museum box office and in the web shop of the Federal Agency for Civic Education.

10 June 2024: Guided city walks of the Müngersdorf Sports Park under National Socialism

A large stadium for football and other team sports, athletics facilities, tennis courts, a swimming pool, a velodrome: Cologne's Müngersdorf Sports Park was the largest German sports facility when it was inaugurated in September 1923 until the opening of the Berlin Olympic Stadium in 1936.

The same venue that will host the men's European Football Championship in June 2024 also hosted sports festivals and competitions during the Nazi era. International football matches and other fixtures also attracted tens of thousands of visitors back then. However, Jewish club members and spectators were quickly excluded. And the sporting events also served as propaganda and were intended to support the regime during the Second World War. Ultimately, the sports park was used for shooting and defence exercises.

Meanwhile, in 1941, the National Socialist authorities set up a camp complex just a few hundred metres north of the sports park, where thousands of Cologne residents persecuted as Jewish were interned under terrible conditions in the following years in preparation for their subsequent deportation to ghettos and extermination camps.

Today, there is a memorial at the site of the former deportation camp, while discussions about the naming of sports facilities and streets in the sports park reveal the difficult handling of the Nazi past in Cologne.

On this city walk, you will learn about the history of the sports park and the deportation camp in Cologne, the venue for the European Championship games.

Please register for a tour by emailing nsdok@stadt-koeln.de.

As part of www.footballandremembrance.de - a project for the EURO24

Dates and times for tours in English (meeting point: KVB station "RheinEnergieSTADION"):

Fr, 14.06., 3:30 pm
Tu, 18.06., 3:30 pm
Fr, 21.06., 3:30 pm
Mo, 24.06., 3:30 pm
Sa, 29.06., 3:30 pm

2 May 2024: Nina Matuszewski is awarded the "Rheinischer ARCHIVARius"

We are very happy to congratulate our dear colleague Nina Matuszewski on being awarded the "Rheinischer ARCHIVARius"!

The award is donated by the Förderverein Centrum Schwule Geschichte e.V. (CSG). It serves as recognition in the fields of archive work and documentation, source research, the indexing of archive material and its preservation.

The CSG awards the prize in recognition of the exemplary work carried out by the archives and documentation centres in the Rhineland and to raise awareness of their work among the general public. Nina Matuszewski has been reorganising the contents of the NS-DOK databases since 2013 and has been involved in research into the persecution of Jewish citizens of Cologne. The results of this work have, among other things, been made available in the Memorial Book for the Jewish Victims of National Socialism from Cologne. 

20 June 2023: New educational programme

On 16 June 2023, Mayor Henriette Reker officially inaugurated the new learning rooms at the NS-DOK. On 17 June, a large opening celebration took place, inviting the city's residents and all interested parties to get to know the new educational programmes as well as other projects of the NS-DOK and its cooperation partners. The new learning rooms can now be booked. Three Talking cafés are available for following up a guided tour of the memorial and the permanent exhibition – please indicate your interest when you book.