Successful start of the project “Venues of victims // Venues of perpetrators” - the kick-off meeting took place in Weimar (Germany) in the attendance of the project partners from 12 European countries

What historical references does human rights education need today? What is the relationship between historical-civic learning and present-day human rights education, and how is it being implemented in educational programs in all over Europe? From 13th to 17th April 2018, representatives of twelve European partner countries from places of remembrance, museums, research and youth education institutions in Weimar sat down with these questions in the context of the kick-off meeting of the project series “Venues of victims // Venues of perpetrators. Mapping, decoding & processing the role of historical – civic education in (European) Youth Work “. Together, several joint events will be implemented in 2018. Thus, in addition to the kick-off seminar in Weimar, the project includes a training in Poznan (Poland), a summer camp for young people in various places in Croatia and a final conference in Spanish Gernika.

The discussion in Weimar was embedded in the mutual getting to know of the project partners, the exchange of the organizations about their work priorities & practices, the examination of the core topics of the project and first steps into the planning of the overall project as well as the common summer camp in Croatia. During the five intensively shared days, a common understanding of the project’s objectives, project implementation and a plan for the coming months could be worked out in different working groups.

The event was led by Dr. Boris Stamenić (Documenta) and Markus Rebitschek (EJBW), a tandem responsible for the overall project-coordination. The project “Venues of victims // Venues of perpetrators. Mapping, decoding & processing the role of historical – civic education in (European) Youth Work” is implemented in cooperation with following organisations: EJBW (Germany), Documenta – Center for Dealing with the Past (Croatia), In Flanders Fields Museum (Belgium), Ústav pro studium totalitních režim (Czech Republic), Sihtasutus Eesti Mälu Instituut (Estonia), Maison d’Izieu, mémorial des enfants juifs exterminés (France), Lietuvos gyventoju genocido ir rezistencijos tyrimo centras (Lithuania), Narviksenteret (Norway), Stowarzyszenie »Jeden ˇSwiat« (Poland), UMAR (Portugal), Socialna Akademia (Slovenia) and Gernika Gogoratuz Centro de Investigación por la paz (Spain).

The project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, Commissary for Culture and Media of FR Germany and Federal Agency for Civic Education (BPB).