Cologne hosts a conference with Catalan participation on the disavowed by Nazism and fascism
Catalonia International is collaborating in the organization with EUROM and two German historical memory entities
The fourth edition of the annual series Subaltern Memories organized by the European Observatory on Memories (EUROM) took place in Cologne (Germany) on 6 and 7 November and focused on the so-called "disavowed", people repudiated as asocial and criminals during Nazism and fascism. The conference was jointly organized by EUROM, the Memorial Foundation for the Murdered Jews of Europe (Berlin) and the NS Documentation Center (Cologne), with the collaboration of Catalonia International and the Delegation of the Catalan Government in Germany. EUROM is a transnational network of institutions and organizations committed to the analysis and promotion of public memory policies, which since 2012 has been led by the Solidarity Foundation of the University of Barcelona.
For two days, international experts and academics debated in Cologne the ideological, legal and institutional frameworks that underpinned the persecution of people in Germany, the occupied territories and allied fascist states such as Franco's Spain. Attendees also examined the personal experiences of the persecuted, their silenced voices and the persistent social exclusion that continued after 1945. On the Catalan side, participants included Jordi Guixé and Oriol López Badell, director and coordinator of EUROM respectively; UB professors and researchers César Lorenzo Rubio and Núria Ricart Ulldemolins; Marie Kapretz, delegate of the Catalan Government in Germany; and Laura Molinos on behalf of Catalonia International, who moderated one of the sessions.
In previous editions, the Subaltern Memories cycle has dealt with the struggles of the LGBTIQ+ collective (2022), the case of the Roma people (2023) and the persecution of people with disabilities (2024). In parallel with the talks and round tables, the exhibition "The Disavowed. Victims of National Socialism 1933-1945-Today" can be visited in Cologne from 8 October to 4 January 2026.
Related links
Video 6 November [in German]
Video 7 November [in German]