We work with people uncovering history related to oppression and using the lessons of that history to create a more just world today.
“Every day, the haters and the aggressors of this world get the headlines. But that’s not the whole story. There are so many people full of love … who stand up every day against prejudice and hate.”
— Gabriele Hannah, Obermayer Award winner
Our Initiatives
Our goal is to increase the impact of grassroots efforts in Germany and the U.S. to create a shared understanding of the past, to use that understanding to combat antisemitism, racism, xenophobia, and bigotry of all kinds, and to create healing.
Obermayer Awards
Honoring people and organizations that work creatively and selflessly to raise awareness of Jewish history and culture in their communities in Germany, and to fight the rise of hate, prejudice, and antisemitism.
Widen the Circle Network
A platform for sharing ideas, skills, and new ways to take action for people engaged in remembrance projects and using remembrance to fight modern prejudice.
International Bridge Building
Widen the Circle builds bridges between educators and activists in the U.S. and Germany to share tactics and strategy, and with thought leaders on both sides of the Atlantic to engage with and support this work.
A Special Online Event:
Meet Christoph Mauny, 2024 Obermayer Award Winner
April 18, 1 pm Eastern
A home for Holocaust survivors, a complex history
What happened to the survivors when they were liberated from Nazi concentration camps? Citizens for the Badehaus shines a light on a little-known history and has connected with a generation of children born to Holocaust survivors as they reclaimed their lives.
“I have to do something so that children’s first contact with Judaism is not the [Holocaust].”
Meet Shlomit Tripp, with her puppet Shlomo and his friends. Their fun-loving shows are adored by children and adults alike, all while demystifying Jewish culture and normalizing intercultural relationships.
“The things that happened to…others are happening today.”
Christof Pies helped found Friends of the Laufersweiler Synagogue in 1989. Since then, he and the association have researched the history of rural Jews who lived in the area, created a vibrant study center, and imbued many young people with an understanding of the need to stand up for what’s right.
A refuge, a greenhouse, a place to confront the past
Treibhaus started as a refuge for young people in an area where Neo-Nazi violence pervaded youth clubs. Today, it’s a vibrant gathering place with intergenerational support. Meanwhile, they are helping rewrite their town’s history and shining a light on a past many people did not want exposed.
“It is very important to deal with this darkest chapter honestly”
Josef Wisskirchen has spent a lifetime helping people understand the truth. What began with a startled realization that a synagogue still stood in his home town turned into decades of research and writing, and connecting with survivors and descendants.
Finding history in forgotten places
In German, Zeitlupe means slow motion, and the Zeitlupe project takes a measured approach to everything it does, whether working with teenagers or nursing students on historical and ethical topics—or turning a former concentration camp for women into a place of remembrance.
Simple, powerful, unforgettable: These yellow bricks fight hate
Sixth-graders at the Löcknitz primary school in Berlin have been building a wall of yellow bricks since the 1990s. It delivers a lasting educational experience about the importance of standing up against hate and prejudice.
American civil rights leader Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, talks about how stumbling stones and a yellow brick wall in Germany inspired his work in the United States. This message was presented at the 20th annual Obermayer Awards Ceremony.