The organization is an NGO and located in the small town of Breisach with now 15.000 inhabitants in the southwest corner of Germany on the border to Alsace/France on the Rhine river. The Swiss border is only 60 km to the south.
The organization was founded in 1999 with the aims 1. to purchase the former Jewish school building (built before 1690), 2. to renovate it and 3. to use it according to its historical importance. The building is located in the former Jewish lane, in walking distance to the former synagogue and the older of two Jewish cemeteries. Jews had lived in this quarter between 1640 and 1940.
The mission according to the statutes is to develop new relationships with Holocaust survivors and their descendants and to work together for a full documentation of the histories of about 250 Jews who had lived here before the Nazi persecution began 1933. They had either become refugees or victims of one of the first deportations in October 1940 to Southwest France (Camp de Gurs). Of those deported the majority became in 1942 and after victims of the deportations from France to Auschwitz concentration camp.
Again and again groups of Holocaust survivors and their descendants returned to what was once their "Heimat" to commemorate the Jewish community which had been destroyed. They became part of a network: the "Overseas members" or "Friends of the Blue House" and could follow the organization making progress in building up a vibrant institution. During each of those group visits to Breisach the program was partially focussing on interaction with young German people (students), most of them have never met a Jewish person.
After finishing the renovation of the historical building in 2003 a 15 year period of volunteer work began with lectures, concerts, guided tours and research. From 2017 on the Blue House staff began to professionalize its reach out to young people and improve its pedagogical work using the archival sources for teaching personal stories. This was made possible with the financial support of a Foundation helping to create a part-time job for a mediator for historical education and cultural transmission.
Plans developed to create a small museum, to use the garden for the display of another exhibition and to develop an audioguide for touristic purposes: https://blaueshausbreisach.de/en/geschichte-verein/4869/self-guided-tour-juedisches-leben-in-breisach/
Since 2019 the museum can be visited: "Jewish life in Breisach in 1931" where the everyday life of a Jewish family with two children can be experienced by exploring a small number of objects on display and listening to radioplays (German/English). See: https://blaueshausbreisach.de/en/rundgang-en/2139/9-dauerausstellung/
An exhibition is permanently installed in the Blue House garden (created by the House of the Wannsee Conference Berlin) dealing with the history of the deportation of the southwestern German Jews to Camp de Gurs in 1940 in the context of the Nazi occupation of France (German/French). Information about the history of the Jews of Breisach (1640-1940) was added and about how the Nazis turned Breisach into a dangerous place for Jews after 1933. A special focus was directed on the role of the Breisach railway bridge, across which seven trains with more than 5600 Jews were deported on October 22, 1940 after having been arrested in their houses, expropriated, taken to a train station and forced into a train directed towards the city of Freiburg and from there to Breisach and across the river Rhine into occupied France. See: https://youtu.be/7grIqgQ2xHs.
A second grant by a Federal institution (2020-2022) was used to deepen the historical research, to create materials for teaching and to design a digital handbook as a short introduction to the Gurs deportation using the example of the Breisach Jews (as one of 138 places where Jews were rounded up). See English summary: https://blaueshausbreisach.de/en/neuigkeiten/5956/digital-handbook-gurs-a-search-for-traces/
In summer of 2023 forty Jewish guests from five countries, their families originating in Breisach, shared the celebration of 20 years of the Blue House. A week-long program was prepared and executed with many highlights especially guests meeting students from Breisach and Freiburg.
The organization has turned in the application for another grant (April 2024 - December 2025) to bring together French and German students to explore the differences of their narratives about the years of Nazi occupation of Alsace. For the 80th anniversary of the end of WW II, the installation of a democratic Germany in 1945 and the development of strong friendly ties between France and Germany a special celebration is in planning for the Breisach bridge. French and German students will work together in a Dance project (under the guidance of Battery Dance Company NY director Jonathan Hollander) creating choreographies and a special choreography for the Breisach bridge. With their participation the young generation will support the plans for a new railroad "bridge for the future" and put emphasis on the strong bond between the youth of both countries.