Over two years, historians and curators from France, Germany, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina worked together on the history and individual stories of resistance against Nazism during World War Two in Europe, thus aiming to contribute to the development of a European memory space.
The project was funded by the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ) and the German Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) as part of the Education Agenda NS-Injustice. Four partner institutions worked together to implement the project: crossborder factory in Germany, the History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Jasenovac Memorial Site in Croatia, and CIFE in France.
The project led to three complementary outputs during the workshops and conferences:
- A scientific publication on the history of resistance against Nazism, fascism, occupation powers, and their collaborating regimes during World War 2, and on its transmission after /since 1945, especially in exhibitions and museums.
- An exhibition at the History Museum of BiH in Sarajevo, dealing with the resistance to Nazism, fascism, and occupation in BiH / Yugoslavia during World War 2, embedded in its European context.
- A multilingual educational digital platform with 100 stories about resistance related to the four countries, as well as pedagogical guidelines on how to deal with these stories/ topics.
The digital platform “Wer ist Walter?” gathers 100 stories about resistance against Nazism, fascism, occupation and collaboration in Europe during World War II. The focus is on 4 countries that represent different regions and historical and political contexts within Europe: France as occupied and collaborating country in western Europe, Germany as the country that attacked and occupied most of Europe, within which resistance activities also developed, and Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia in southeastern Europe, as parts of the Yugoslav space and more specifically of the collaborating Independent State of Croatia between 1941 and 1945. The focus on the Yugoslav space is especially important to us, because the resistance was here particularly strong and because the (post-)Yugoslav space is often forgotten or neglected in discussions about European history and memories.
To facilitate the understanding of the stories, the platform includes basic information about occupation and resistance in Europe in general, and more specifically in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, France and Germany, as well as a glossary with key terms related to this topic.
The project involved the organisation of several workshops and conferences in Sarajevo, Zagreb, Jasenovac, Nice, and Berlin, in cooperation with a group of 12 researchers and curators working in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, France and Germany.
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“Death to Fascism, Freedom to the People”, stained glass in the History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, formerly Museum of Revolution, with damages dating from the 1992-1995 war.
© History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina