Discover history digitally with a smartphone app
Date: July 7, 2025|12:00 to13:00
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Recommended for: History enthusiasts, public history initiatives, museums, citizens’ initiatives and all age groups
Suitable for: Students
The non-profit organization dieKunstBauStelle e. V. has developed an app that maps thousands of places where National Socialists committed crimes between 1933 and 1945.
Many of them did not take place in well-known places such as concentration camps, but also in homes, in public squares, right next door. And many are forgotten today. The app is a low-threshold information tool. It can be used to initiate public history projects and support research into the history of National Socialism and make it visible.
What can you expect?
We present the project and how the app works and explain how local partner organizations can get involved. And of course we will answer your questions!
Why an app?
80 years after the end of the war and in view of the resurgence of right-wing extremist hate speech, new digital approaches to historical facts and education are needed. The NaziCrimesAtlas makes it possible to learn the stories of deeds and victims and brings them out of oblivion. We’ll show you how to use it and create your own projects with it in the demo at the Nuremberg Digital Festival.
How does it work?
On the map of Germany, pins are listed for each crime scene, organized according to crime complexes such as pogroms, murders of the sick, final-phase crimes, etc. Each pin is accompanied by a brief description of the crime and a file number so that you can do further research in the archive and find out the details of the crimes, the stories of the victims and other background information. In this way, the app serves to educate and provide a fact-based foundation for an exchange about democracy, for learning from history and against forgetting the victims.
What data does the app offer?
The NaziCrimesAtlas is based on extensive sources that document the crimes and crime scenes in detail. Around 25,000 court files document various crimes and their crime scenes, including concentration camps, prisons, clinics, torture cellars and everyday places. In addition to these files, other sources on the Holocaust document the scenes of Nazi crimes, including archives such as the Yad Vashem Memorial, the Arolsen Archives and the Central Office in Ludwigsburg. The project is being continuously expanded and improved through cooperation with existing data collections.
How can you take part?
The app invites you to participate, because with your support it will get better and better: Anyone who investigates a crime scene and finds well-founded sources can post this material in the Digital Atlas of Nazi Crimes – after editorial review by the project team – and thus make it accessible to others.
