Seminar: How Should We Commemorate the Tartu Concentration Camp?

**Please take note: this event is in Estonian only, no translation provided on location**

How should a concentration camp and its victims be commemorated in the urban landscape of Estonia today? During the German occupation, between 3,500 and 4,000 people were executed at the Tartu concentration camp. The victims included people who had collaborated with the Soviet authorities, Jewish and Roma families from Tartu, and Jewish men, women and children brought to Tartu from Latvia.

Today, few traces of the camp are visible in the public landscape. The main sites of remembrance are the Soviet-era memorial at Lemmatsi outside Tartu (1964, designed by Elmar Rebane and Väino Tamm) and two smaller memorial stones at the Jewish cemetery in Lohkva. Yet the concentration camp was not confined to a single site: its network of facilities extended across the city.

In light of recent historical research, the ways in which the Tartu concentration camp has been remembered in independent Estonia call for renewed attention, both in cultural memory and in public space.

This seminar brings together historians, scholars of memory and urban space, and artists to examine the history of the Tartu concentration camp and its place in the memory landscape of Tartu and Estonia. Its broader aim is to explore how the various sites associated with the camp might be connected into a coherent framework—both conceptually and spatially—within the contemporary city.

As a first step, the seminar seeks to create a space for dialogue between experts from different fields and the citizens of Tartu, providing a foundation for future decisions and initiatives aimed at making the history of the concentration camp more visible.

How should we approach Soviet-era memorial sites today? How can difficult histories be represented in public space in ways that reflect recent historical research and changing social and cultural contexts?

Alongside presentations and discussions, the seminar programme includes a guided bus tour of sites connected with the Tartu concentration camp and a visit to the Lemmatsi Memorial.

PROGRAMME

11:15
Welcome and opening remarks
Risto Lehiste (Tartu City Museum)
Kristo Nurmis (Tallinn University)

SESSION I

The Tartu Concentration Camp: Historical Perspectives

11:30–11:50
Riho Västrik (Tallinn University)
The Concentration Camp System in Estonia during the German Occupation

11:50–12:10
Kristo Nurmis (Tallinn University)
The Concentration Camp and Communal Violence in Tartu during the German Occupation

12:10–12:30
Meelis Maripuu (Estonian Institute of Historical Memory)
Soviet Rule and the Tartu Concentration Camp

12:30–12:45
Discussion
Moderated by David Ilmar Lepasaar Beecher (University of Tartu)

12:45–13:30
Lunch

SESSION II

Commemorating Concentration Camps: Comparative Perspectives

13:30–13:50
Kädi Talvoja (Estonian Academy of Arts)
The Lemmatsi Memorial: An Art-Historical Perspective

13:50–14:10
Eneken Laanes (Tallinn University)
Conceptual Approaches in Cultural Memory to Commemorating the German Occupation

14:10–14:30
Hellar Lill (Estonian War Museum – General Laidoner Museum)
Exhumation and Reburial of the Victims of the Second World War

14:30–14:45
Discussion
Moderated by Gregor Taul (Estonian Academy of Arts)

14:45–15:00
Coffee break

SESSION III

How Should the Tartu Concentration Camp Be Commemorated in Public Space?

15:00–16:00
Panel discussion
Moderated by Mariann Raisma (University of Tartu Museum)

Participants:
Ants Siim (Tartu City Museum)
Karin Bachmann (Kino Landscape Architects)
Kertu Vuks (Tartu City Government)
Gennadi Gramberg (Estonian Jewish Museum)
Taavi Piibemann (Pallas University of Applied Sciences)

16:15–18:00
Guided bus tour

A bus tour of sites associated with the Tartu concentration camp, followed by a visit to the Lemmatsi Memorial. The tour will be led by Indrek Mustimets.

The tour begins and ends at Tartu City Museum.

Participation in the seminar is free of charge, but advance registration is required. Please register HERE by 20 September. **Please take note: this event is in Estonian only, no translation provided on location**

The event is organised by Tartu City Museum, Tartu City Government, and “How to Reframe Monuments,” a joint project of the Estonian Academy of Arts and Tallinn University.