Christoph Heubner

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Christoph Heubner 2018

Christoph Heubner (born May 6, 1949 in Niederaula ) is a German writer and executive vice-president of the International Auschwitz Committee .

Life

Christoph Heubner was born as the son of pastor Horst Heubner and grew up in Hessian villages: Attending elementary school in Lingelbach and Cölbe , transition to the Philippinum grammar school in Marburg , high school diploma at the comprehensive school in Kirchhain .

He refused to do military service, did a peace service as part of the Action Reconciliation Service in Oxford (England) in a homeless asylum and later looked after the first groups of Action Reconciliation in the Stutthof Concentration Camp Memorial (near Gdansk / Poland ). This was followed by studies of history, German and politics in Marburg and Kassel, as well as a first state examination.

Parallel to his studies he worked on documentaries (together with Ulrich Leinweber and Alwin Meyer):

  • The stations of Lore Diener (life story about Lore Diener, survivor of Auschwitz , 1974)
  • Heroes (report on a meeting of the order community of knight cross bearers, 1975)
  • Excursion to Auschwitz (German tourists visiting the memorial, 1976).

Then he worked for radio (church radio and youth radio) and dealt with literary work. After the exam, he worked full-time at the Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste. Close cooperation and friendship existed with the poet and work colleague Volker von Törne (von Törne and Heubner: Situation report , poems and songs, 1976).

Encouraged by Auschwitz survivor Tadeusz Szymański , he wrote a publication in 1979 on the art of the prisoners in Auschwitz: Signs of Life (together with Alwin Meyer and Jürgen Pieplow).

After Törne's death in 1980 he took part in the continuation of the planning and negotiations regarding the construction of the International Youth Meeting Center in Oświęcim / Auschwitz: 1986 saw the inauguration of the first construction phase of the IJBS (second construction phase 1996). Since 1985 there has been a participation in the International Auschwitz Committee. Baron Maurice Goldstein (Brussels), the former President of the IAK, proposed him as one of the Vice-Presidents of the IAK and repeatedly confirmed him by the General Assembly of the IAK. Since 1990 he has been involved in the supervision of trainees at Volkswagen AG and Polish vocational school students during a 14-day work and seminar stay at the IJBS and practical work at the Auschwitz Memorial.

Heubner has had a close relationship with Belarus and friendship with Wassil Bykau , the Belarusian writer, since 1985 . Numerous joint reading tours and events followed up to Bykau's death in 2003.

Since 1984 he has been the publisher (together with Alwin Meyer) of the pocket calendar “Literature” at Lamuv Verlag .

In October 2003 he participated in the opening of the coordination office of the International Auschwitz Committee in Berlin . In June 2005 Heubner was re-elected as a member of the board of the Foundation for the International Youth Meeting Center in Oswiecim / Auschwitz.

At the invitation of the International Auschwitz Committee, Kazuo Ishiguro, the writer and later winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature, visited the Auschwitz and Birkenau memorials together with Christoph Heubner on October 6, 1999 . In his Nobel Lecture on December 7, 2017 at the Swedish Academy , Kazuo Ishiguro reported on this encounter and his essential considerations and personal challenges during and after the visit to Auschwitz.

On June 7, 2018, Heubner led the rappers Farid Bang and Kollegah through the Auschwitz I concentration camp (main camp) . In honor of those murdered in occupied Poland during the National Socialist era , the musicians laid flowers on the death wall.

Heubner publishes poems and stories, he is married to Michèle Deodat from France and has two sons.

Honors

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. International Auschwitz Committee: In 1999 Kazuo Ishiguro visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial. Remembering yesterday, responsibility for tomorrow. In: auschwitz.info. January 26, 2015, accessed August 19, 2018 .
  2. Nordwest-Zeitung: Gesture against hatred: rappers Kollegah and Farid Bang in concentration camp memorial. In: nwzonline.de. June 7, 2018. Retrieved August 19, 2018 .
  3. ^ Cross of Merit for Christoph Heubner. In: berlin.de. August 21, 2002. Retrieved August 20, 2018 .
  4. ^ The Federal President / Announcement of the awards from February 1, 2015. In: bundespraesident.de. February 1, 2015, accessed August 20, 2018 .