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PD Dr Irmtrud Wojak

The historian has been campaigning for years to keep the voices of the survivors’ resistance alive.

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In memory of Fritz Bauer

"Never again!" is more than a reminder not to forget the crimes in our history. What is needed is an active "Yes!" to the inviolability of human dignity.

Irmtrud Wojak

Founder, curator and human rights campaigner

Irmtrud Wojak comes from the Ruhr area. She became interested in the causes of social inequality and human rights violations early on. She wanted to do something about it, studied history and political science at Ruhr University Bochum, became involved in the city of Bochum’s twinning programme with Boaco/Santa Lucia in Nicaragua and helped to set up an orphanage for children whose parents were victims of the US war against the Central American country. From 1989 onwards, her commitment to Chile solidarity took her to Latin America again and again.

In Nicaragua and Chile, and later also Uruguay and Argentina, Irmtrud Wojak experienced the reality of poverty and violence and learnt about the courage of people who, for completely different reasons, had to fight for their rights and did so. It was there in Latin America that she wrote her dissertation on the political opponents of the Nazi regime and the survivors of the Holocaust.

A journey through time

Milestones on the path of Irmtrud Wojak

Her journey took her from Bochum to Latin America and Israel, and later to the USA. Her career took her to Frankfurt, Bad Arolsen and Munich. She soon realised that she wanted to create a place where Fritz Bauer’s legacy would live on.

1993

After years of research in Latin America, dissertation at the Ruhr University Bochum on Jewish and political emigration to Chile before National Socialism.

1994 / 1998

Co-founder and chairwoman of the “Remembering for the Future” association. The citizens’ initiative organises the invitation of Holocaust survivors from Bochum and Wattenscheid to their former home communities.

As a scient. As a research associate at the Fritz Bauer Institute, together with Joachim Perels, publication of selected writings by Fritz Bauer “Die Humanität der Rechtsordnung”.

2001

Publication of the first study on the records of Nazi perpetrator Adolf Eichmann in prison in Israel and the interview he gave to a former SS officer in exile in Argentina. For the first time, Fritz Bauer’s decisive role in Eichmann’s arrest becomes better known to the public.

2004 / 2008

2004 Curator of the first exhibition on the Auschwitz trial as deputy director of the Fritz Bauer Institute. 2008 Habilitation with the first biography of Fritz Bauer at the Leibniz University of Hanover. At the same time, she set up the library and research department at the International Tracing Service, now the Arolsen Archives.

2009 / 2011

Founding director of the Munich NS Documentation Centre.

2013 / 2017

Establishment of the BUXUS FOUNDATION and start of research work for an interactive library with stories of resistance and survival. The project is trialled at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute.