Persecuted swing dancers and jazz musicians in northwest Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland

The transnational project takes a comparative look at the Nazi persecution practices of the northwest German swing youth, the Czech potapki and the swing and jazz music scene in occupied Poland and develops multi-perspective, interdisciplinary and participatory mediation formats.

In all three countries, the project raises public awareness of this particular form of resistance and the associated Nazi injustice. Through empathy-promoting and competence-oriented learning, it enables young people to make discrimination-sensitive judgments in the present.

It provides the basis for long-term interdisciplinary and transnational cooperation between the participating partner organizations and contributes to a common European memory space.

The target groups are pupils, students, people interested in music and history as well as the jazz and lindy hop scenes in the participating countries. The project theme is communicated via formats such as workshops (dance, music, content communication), interviews with descendants of persecutees and contemporary witnesses, readings, lectures, panel discussions, documentary films, exhibitions, concerts, dance events and historical swing walks.

As part of the project, two documentary films and an exhibition will be developed in a participatory manner with pupils and students. During a swing exchange weekend in Bremen, a joint dance performance will be developed with Lindy Hop dancers from the Czech Republic and Poland, which will be presented to the public in an unusual way at the various locations in 2025.

We provide information about the project and its activities via this project website and our social media channels.