The Visegrad organisations behind project TRACE will gather with experts on antisemitism, antigypsyism at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial site on 10–11 June 2026 to strengthen the shared response to these challenges across Central Europe.
After 2 years of joint work, the TRACE consortium from across the V4 region will convene at Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial site together with international researchers, civil society representatives, and practitioners. The conference aims to present the outcomes of the project, launch its multilingual digital platform, foster the exchange of experience and good practice across the V4 region and beyond, and set the direction for sustained cross-border cooperation in the years ahead.
TRACE monitors and analyses antisemitism and antigypsyism in Central Europe. The project is guided by a clear principle: history is not detached from the present. Antisemitism and antigypsyism continue to surface in violent attacks, public discourse, and political narratives; Roma communities remain marginalised; Holocaust denial and historical distortion are growing. Project TRACE makes these patterns visible, places them in historical context, and equips civil society and public institutions to anticipate, prevent, and respond more effectively.
A digital platform launching in June 2026
At the centre of TRACE is a multilingual digital platform (www.projecttrace.eu) designed not as a static archive, but as a living, evolving tool. It combines incident mapping, a historical timeline running from 1939 to the present, and a curated collection of resources and good practices. The professional community is invited to report incidents through the platform, where they are verified and mapped to reveal trends across borders.
Conference programme
The conference programme will open with a guided visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum and facilitated reflection groups at ARCHER. The main day will feature a keynote on Connecting Past and Present: Antisemitism & Antigypsyism in Central Europe and two thematic panels — Defining & Monitoring Contemporary Antisemitism and Antigypsyism and Whole-of-Society Responses to Antisemitism and Antigypsyism — with international speakers from the UK, Spain, Israel, Hungary/Germany, Belgium, and Slovakia.
The conference will be hosted at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum and at ARCHER: the Auschwitz Research Center on Hate, Extremism, and Radicalization, at House 88, the former villa of Auschwitz Commandant Rudolf Höss, located just steps from the camp itself. Transformed by the Counter Extremism Project into a research and education hub operating under the banner Against the Mainstreaming of the Extreme, ARCHER combines research, policy advocacy, training, and art to confront how extremism becomes normalised.
The conference will be accompanied by two exhibitions: The Birdman of Auschwitz: Science and the Failure of Conscience and Ground Glass: Reframing the World of Lens-Maker and Holocaust Victim. The event will conclude with a special concert by Francesco Lotoro, the Italian pianist, composer, and conductor who has spent more than three decades recovering and preserving music composed in ghettos, concentration and death camps.
About TRACE
Project TRACE is an international consortium of professional organisations from Central Europe and Germany, funded by the European Commission's Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV) under the name TOMCAT (project no. 101144613).
Project partners are: Institute for Social Safety (Poland), Counter Extremism Project (Germany), Ashoka Foundation (Poland), Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau (Poland), Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation (Poland), The Theresienstadt Centre for Genocide Studies, Archaeology of Evil Research Centre (Czech Republic), Political Capital (Hungary), The Violence Prevention Network (Germany), Centrum Komunitného Organizovania (Slovakia) and Seesame (Slovakia).