Dear readers and dear friends of Medaon,

The current issue is devoted to the reception of the Spatial Turn in research on the Holocaust. Alexander Klei and Annika Wienert are the initiators and act as co-editors.

The thematic contributions deal with the relationship of Jewish spaces to the Holocaust. The question of what constitutes Jewish spaces can be answered in different ways: they can be religious, cultural, social, familial, or individual spaces; they can exist physically but also be imaginary; they can have a public or private character, be stationary or mobile. To annihilate these places was a goal of the national socialist extermination policy.

How Jewish places have been altered, relocated, or maintained themselves in the face of German extermination is examined in the four research articles. The contributions span the period from the early anti-Jewish persecutions to contemporary literature. Natasha Gordinsky devotes her text to the remembrance of mass shootings in the Ukraine in post-Soviet German fiction. Jan Lambertz analyses how Jewish cemeteries were dealt with in Nazi Germany and the Federal Republic. Thomas Pekar looks at Jewish exile in Shanghai during World War II. Volker Benkert and Marc Vance retrace the path of the Loewy family from Frankfurt to Phoenix, Arizona.

In the “sources” section, Jonas Stier presents us with the photographic documentation of Jewish cemeteries in Hamburg, Annika Wienert and Niels Gutschow review the general land-use plan for the city of Auschwitz by Hans Stosberg 1943.

Beyond the spatial focus area, the current issue contains more and diverse contributions. Gerdin Jonker provides an inside look at the workings of church and religious community consortia in greater Berlin, and Jacob Görlitz traces Jewish life in Großenhain.

The continuing situation of the COVID-19 pandemic is taken up by Tobias Ebbrecht-Hartmann in his contribution “thoughts on the virtual transformation of places of remembrance”.

In the “biographies of Jewish women” section, Kirsten Heinsohn devotes herself to the life of Eva G. Reichmann. Biographies are also a concern in other areas. Sebastian Elsbach deals with the person and the worldview of Ernst Niekisch, and Grażyna Jurewicz calls on more methodological awareness in Jewish Studies’ biographical research.

In “education”, Janna Petersen introduces the reader to the project Chasak! By the Institut für Neuw Soziale Plastik, while the series “Einblendungen” directs attention to the different forms of writing in relation to German-Jewish film history.

The issue is completed by reviews of works on various aspects and topics of Jewish life in research and education.

We wish to thank the co-editors Alexandra Klei and Annika Wienert for excellent cooperation, for their efforts in the publication process, and, of course, for the great endresult!

Our sincere thanks also go out to the referees as well as to Steffen Schröter of text plus form, Cathleen Bürgelt, Margi Schellenberg, Patricia C. Sutcliffe and Phillip Roth – they took care of copyediting and translating and thereby contributed greatly to the realization of this edition.

The editors of Medaon, May 2021.