On June 6, 2025, the European Memory Data Space (EMDS) organized an event at the Dutch National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam. This event was dedicated to the Data Space approaches, implementation strategies and lessons learnt.
Building on the visionary session held on the June 5 with leaders from Holocaust museums, initiatives, and memorials, the event on June 6 focused on the implementation strategies within the current landscape of European Data Spaces. It analyzed the successes and failures of completed and ongoing data space projects, and proposed a roadmap for EMDS both as a standalone initiative and as a component of the broader, interconnected ecosystem of data spaces and infrastructures.
CoE-DSC participated
During the conference, Yekaterina Travkina (CoE-DSC) was on stage to facilitate part of the discussions on Data Spaces Landscape developments, and later in the day a roundtable session on practical steps forward to realizing business value and roll out.
Background on European Memory Data Space
European Memory Data Space (EMDS) is envisioned to become an innovative data space ecosystem dedicated to Holocaust-related data. Joining the family of European Common Data Spaces, it will bring together archives, research institutions, commemoration projects, and memorials across Europe. Leveraging vast collections of digitized Holocaust resources, EMDS aims to connect thousands of data sources to create the foundations of the remembrance culture of the 21st century.
The first phase of the project, EMDS – Blueprint, funded by the CERV program of the European Commission, comprises a comprehensive series of collaborative workshops across Europe in 2025-26. Working with various stakeholder groups, we will collaboratively design the Blueprint of the future Data Space, visualize it, and communicate it to a broad audience of professionals and activists involved with Holocaust-related data.
Artist Gert Jan Kocken combined data in his work for the Holocaust Museum
In the Dutch National Holocaust Museum you will find this impressive piece of art made by Gert Jan Kocken.
For this work, Gert Jan Kocken used numerous maps of Amsterdam from the period of the German occupation and the persecution of Jews. These various maps were made between 1940 and 1945 for the municipality, as well as the Nazis, the resistance, the food banks and the Allies. Kocken overlaid scanned versions of these maps exactly on top of each other. The use of this data led to the creation of a single map on which all information is combined. This artwork captures the social fabric of society and the complexity of five years of war, in every street of Amsterdam.
