In two randomized studies with around 1,500 participants, the researchers compared the impact of active remembrance work with the mere provision of information. The study focused on the #everynamecounts project, a digital crowdsourcing project run by the Arolsen Archives in which volunteers digitize historical documents related to the persecution of Nazi victim groups. Half of the participants actively took part in this project and digitized so-called prisoner registration cards from the Buchenwald concentration camp. The other group only received information about Nazi persecution and the archived documents (study 1) or no information at all (study 2). The groups were then surveyed.
The results are clear: after the project, participants in the active group were more motivated to get involved in memory projects and, on average, were also willing to donate more to a memorial site. They also stated that they wanted to take a stand against discrimination and for human rights – their willingness to join an initiative or sign a petition against antisemitism was particularly high.
The study shows that participatory memory work strengthens people's confidence in their own ability to act – possibly the decisive difference between participatory memory work and the mere transfer of information. At the end of the project, participants from the active group were more likely to agree with statements that they could help keep the memory of Nazi crimes alive and make an important contribution to a future without hatred and exclusion.
"Our results demonstrate the potential of participatory approaches compared to traditional methods that focus on information transfer," says study coordinator Ruth Ditlmann from the Hertie School. "Participatory approaches strengthen the belief in one's own efficacy– a key driver of civic engagement."
Furthermore, the study shows that actively engaging with Nazi crimes can also raise awareness of other historical injustices, such as colonial crimes. Participants were subsequently more motivated to commemorate the victims of German colonialism or to support archives that document these injustices. "At least on an individual level, this contradicts the claim that memory work is a zero-sum game in which commemorating different cases of past injustice takes away from the attention given to any one of them," says WZB researcher Berenike Firestone.
Floriane Azoulay, director of the Arolsen Archives, emphasizes: "Active and low-threshold personal involvement in digital remembrance projects is extremely important to us. The study now even demonstrates: A personal involvement in #everynamecounts creates a collective and powerful form of remembrance that was not possible before - personal and globally connected, while engaging with others."
The study "Participating in a Digital History Project Mobilizes People for Symbolic Justice and Better Intergroup Relations Today" by Ruth Ditlmann, Berenike Firestone, and Oguzhan Turkoglu has been published in the journal Psychological Science.
You can find it here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09567976251331040
More information about the Arolsen Archives and the #everynamecounts project:
www.everynamescounts.arolsen-archives.org
