The event focused on the exchange of ideas on topics such as the culture of remembrance and the commitment of contemporary witnesses, as well as information on new developments such as the Federal Council initiative of the state of Lower Saxony to improve the situation of victims of SED injustice.

The meeting took place on the initiative of Hartmut Büttner, spokesperson for the Lower Saxony Network of SED and Stasi Victims. Among those present were Lord Mayor Frank Klingebiel, Birgit Neumann-Becker, the Saxony-Anhalt Commissioner for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship, the former Lord Mayor of Salzgitter and honorary citizen Rudolf Rückert and the former CDU Member of Parliament Helmut Sauer.

Mayor Frank Klingebiel welcomed the guests to Salzgitter and recalled the special role of the Central Registration Office of the State Justice Administrations, which existed in Salzgitter-Bad until 1992: "Our obligation is to keep the memory of the crimes of the SED dictatorship alive. We can and must learn from history so that this does not happen again."