Assist. Prof. Dr. Daniel Siter spoke at an international conference in Moscow marking the 80th anniversary of the start of the Nuremberg Trials and, in Vologda, met with relatives of deceased Soviet prisoners of war.
Moscow: international scientific conference, opening and presentation of the exhibition, interviews, and a lecture
In Moscow, between 20 and 21 November, the international scientific conference “No Term Limit. Nuremberg. 80th Anniversary.” took place, symbolically marking 80 years since the start of the Nuremberg trials (20 Nov 1945). The plenary day was held in the central Moscow exhibition hall, Manege, where an exhibition reconstruction of a room from Nuremberg was staged, and original footage was also shown. The second part of the conference continued at the Museum of Victory.
At the Manege, Dr. Siter gave several in-depth interviews, guided visitors through his (co-authored) exhibition and presented his research; at the Museum of Victory he delivered a lecture in which, based on archival documents, civil and parish registers and private documentary material from Switzerland, Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom, as well as fieldwork, he revealed the careers, life paths and fates of the chief commanders of the prisoner-of-war camp (Stammlager XVIII D) in Maribor. They evaded postwar identification, judicial questioning and proceedings, and criminal liability for the war crimes committed (especially against Soviet prisoners of war) during the Second World War in Maribor.
A few days ago, with the help of an obliging German mayor and his municipal administration, which manages the cemetery where one of the commanders is buried, Siter managed to trace two surviving grandchildren of the commander. “Should they be willing to talk, a new chapter in researching and revealing the local history of Maribor opens,” Siter explains.
Moscow, 20 and 21 Nov 2025
Vologda Oblast: ceremonial laying of flowers for the fallen in WWII, meeting with the family of a prisoner of war who died in Maribor – expression of gratitude – handover of archival documents, a scholarly lecture at the city library, exhibition presentation, interviews:
In Vologda, 500 km north of Moscow, several Red Army soldiers were born who were captured on the Eastern Front during Barbarossa (the German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941) and later interned and killed in the Nazi prisoner-of-war camp in Maribor (Stammlager XVIII D). In snow-covered Vologda, Dr. Siter met with their relatives and, together with them, city representatives and the historical society, attended the laying of flowers at the monument to those fallen in WWII.
“The family I met had, until now, not known where, when, and why their relative died, or whether he was even buried,” emphasized Dr. Siter. “They only knew that he was gone,” he added. Siter solemnly handed over documents from the archives—sorrowful memorials of captivity and death in occupied Slovenia—and concluded the event at the city library with a scholarly lecture. He also gave statements and in-depth interviews to numerous media outlets.
“The sorrow and at the same time the ultimate sense of peace of the relative at the official handover of the documents, and my profound gratitude, once again made me realize how important a tool historiography and such research are,” Siter emphasized, and concluded: “Not only for the past.”
Vologda, 24 Nov 2025
In Moscow and Vologda, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Siter appeared as a researcher and assistant professor at Alma Mater Europaea University and head of research at the International Research Centre of the Second World War Maribor (MRC Maribor). In his research and teaching (ISH Faculty of AMEU University), he focuses on modern Slovenian and European 20th-century history. He specializes in the life of Adolf Hitler, the history of Nazism and dark cultural heritage, Nazi prisoner-of-war camps, the Kulturbund, and the German minority in Slovenia, occupation borders, and German occupation policy in Slovenia. He is the author of a pioneering work—the widely noted monograph Rogaška Slatina under the Swastika (in two editions in 2021 and 2023), editor-in-chief and author of a multi-author monograph (LIT Verlag, 2025) and other books, original exhibitions, articles, reviews, invited lectures and papers, as well as conversational collaborations in interviews, podcasts and other appearances (AIDEA and TED Talk). He is a recipient of awards. He regularly conducts research and appears, organizes, and lectures at domestic and international academic events (Johannesburg, Almaty, Berlin, Moscow, London, Freiburg, Belgrade, Ludwigsburg, Canterbury, Zagreb, Prague …). In 2024, at the special invitation of the Museum of Victory in Moscow, in his capacity as author, he prepared an original exhibition about the POW camp Stalag XVIII D and participated in its professional opening presentation.
