© Laurent Hoffmann
© Laurent Hoffmann
EVZ Foundation: Where do you see the biggest challenge for memory work and civic education in the digital space/on social media platforms?
Gina Wiedemann: The biggest challenge is the companies behind the platforms. We need the algorithm to not work against us, but with us – to push our content, our democratic content, our educational content. But we also need support from legislation and funding institutions. We need sustainable funding for projects that see social media as a strategy, not as something ‘nice to have.’
EVZ Foundation: What are your strategies and best practices in your work dealing with these challenges?
Gina Wiedemann: We are creating peer-to-peer content: We involve young people in our communication for young people – otherwise it doesn't make sense, it's just cringe.
We also try to be as authentic as possible and listen to our community. If there's feedback, we try to embrace it. We want to have dialogue with people who watch our videos and comment.
EVZ Foundation: How do you deal with hate comments?
Gina Wiedemann: We get a lot of hate. That’s something you need a certain backbone for. Not every comment is valid. When we get hate comments with invalid criticism, we don't listen to them. If there's hate speech, we delete it. Social media is, in the end, a battlefield – and we are trying to win this battle for democracy. That is the backbone of our work.
EVZ Foundation: What do we need from politics/civil society to deal with those issues?
Gina Wiedemann: On social media, 90% of people don’t say anything. I would love for people to comment more. If they see hate speech, fake news, or disinformation, they should say something or report the comment. That would be great.
EVZ Foundation: What did you learn today at the #5YPRI event?
Gina Wiedemann: Especially from talking on the panel with Anna Lenchovska, the director of the NGO Tolerspace in Kyiv, I learned that memory and how we talk about remembrance can be very different in other countries – especially if your own country is at war. Young people view remembrance differently when they experience war themselves. That is something I’m definitely taking with me.
EVZ Foundation: What is something important that is missing from the discussion?
Gina Wiedemann: What I’m missing from the discussion on remembrance culture is a spark of activism. We often talk about it in a very academic way, since it comes from the academic world.
But there are so many young and passionate people involved. I don’t think you need a research or academic background to volunteer or engage in remembrance work. That part is often missing in discussions – especially in panel discussions.
We need to give a voice to young people on the ground who are actively engaged in projects.
EVZ Foundation: Where do you see the biggest challenge for memory work and civic education in the digital space/on social media platforms?
Anna Lenchovska: There are two main challenges. The first is that social media platforms are built on emotional engagement. They’re designed to trigger emotions and keep users engaged through emotional content. This often leads to people forming bubbles – closed environments that reflect only a narrow perspective, rather than broader narratives or diverse viewpoints within society.
The second challenge – especially for teenagers and young people – is the role of influencers. This can be both a challenge and an opportunity. Influencers in digital media can promote important messages about remembrance, the value of diversity, human rights, and the fight for democracy. But they can also spread harmful or misleading content.
In Ukraine, we’re also seeing a growing number of young people who no longer trust anyone on social media. For me, that raises the question: how is trust built in real life? Trust is something we urgently need to rebuild – both in our war-affected society and more broadly, across Europe and internationally.
EVZ Foundation: What are your strategies and best practices in your work dealing with these challenges?
Anna Lenchovska: We use a peer-to-peer approach. Research shows that teenagers are more likely to trust their peers than adults. That’s why we invite interested teenagers to join us as interns. Together with our editors and experts, they produce digital content.
Sometimes they’re surprised to learn that not every powerful image they find online accurately reflects historical events. Some photos, for example, may come from different tragedies or be used out of context. They are trained to find original sources, to quote them properly, and to be critical of visual material.
At the same time, many still carry a “school mindset” – approaching topics like history or tragedies such as the Holocaust, the Roma genocide, or forced labor with a very serious, almost stiff attitude. We work with them to help them be more authentic and not afraid to be themselves, even when addressing difficult or painful subjects.
EVZ Foundation: What do we need from politics and civil society to deal with those issues?
Anna Lenchovska: Politicians and civil society need to work closely together to define new rules for how we engage with the digital world – especially when it comes to freedom of expression.
We see how some governments use censorship to limit freedoms and create parallel realities. On the other hand, in parts of Europe, legislation is so slow that it struggles to address current issues like hate speech, denial, disinformation, and propaganda.
That’s why cooperation is needed – between politicians, civil society, and tech companies like Meta, X, and other major platforms. They need to sit down together and think through solutions.
EVZ Foundation: Where do you see the biggest challenge for memory work and civic education in the digital space/on social media platforms?
Paweł Sawicki: The biggest challenges come from what social platforms inherently are. They change the way we communicate. We see increasing polarization and the spread of hate speech in the digital world.
While it's easier to safeguard and protect authentic physical sites when people are present, the digital space is much harder to control – yet we must try. The challenges of new technologies are also very real – AI-generated content, fake stories, and misinformation are growing issues. We need to address them openly and talk about digital literacy, especially in relation to history and its distortion.
We need strong networks, collaboration, and mutual learning to develop new strategies that help our messages reach people.
EVZ Foundation: What are your strategies and best practices in your work dealing with these challenges?
Paweł Sawicki: At the Auschwitz Memorial, we’ve built an entire environment of educational content available online.
One goal of our social media work is to draw people away from the more hostile and uncontrollable parts of the internet – where we can’t control algorithms – and bring them into our own digital spaces: our website, our resources. There, we can ensure a more respectful and safe engagement with the stories we preserve.
EVZ Foundation: What do we need from politics and civil society to deal with those issues?
Paweł Sawicki: Social platforms have become global corporate structures, driven by algorithms that no one fully understands. Yet they shape how we perceive the world. And unfortunately, these platforms were not designed to make us wiser; they were built to drive engagement.
This engagement logic contributes to polarization. And the stories we deal with – like Auschwitz, the Holocaust, or other atrocities – cannot be meaningfully communicated in such a polarized environment. These are complex, nuanced histories. But the platforms often degrade the level of dialogue we can have.
We can raise awareness, educate our audiences, and help them recognize manipulation or distortion. But raising our voices as institutions is not enough. The platforms must also take responsibility – which they currently don’t.
That’s where regulation comes in – through governments or international bodies like the European Union. If our governments care about protecting people in public spaces or in schools, they should also care about protecting people in the digital sphere. That, too, must be part of their responsibility.
