The Drowned… and the Saved - Scuola di pace di Monte Sole

On 8th August 1956, 262 coal
miners of 12 different
nationalities lost their life in
an accident at “Le Bois du
Cazier.” The tragedy led to
massive reforms in workers’
rights in Belgium. In the old
colliery, this tragedy is put
back into its historical place
for visitors today.
Le Bois du Cazier: in the past, a place of a Tragedy, nowadays, a site listed on the UNESCO’s world
heritage list. © Detraux/Paquay/Deru/Paquet/Cleda.
Le Bois du Cazier builds off
this legacy of transforming
history into positive social
change. Visitors engage with
lessons from the tragedy at
Le Bois du Cazier to broach
contemporary issues like
workers’ safety, labor
regulations, and immigrants’
rights.
As part of Navigating Difference, a joint project of Le Bois du Cazier and the Coalition, students
consider the questions “Is immigration good for my country? My community? Me?” and
compare their answers with others from Italy and America.© Le Bois du Cazier.
In working to develop and
engaged and active citizenry,
“Le Bois du Cazier”
encourages its visitors to
reflect on their own histories
and the personal
experiences of others in
forming social positions and
values.
Read more about Le Bois du
Cazier.
Young Italians meet with former miners at le Bois du Cazier to learn about workers’ and
immigrants’ experiences. Le Bois du Cazier is a place where knowledge transmission informs
contemporary values. © Axel Mathieu.
For nearly 30 years,
Catalonian civil society
demanded the recovery of
silenced memories from
1931-1980: Spain’s Second
Republic, the Spanish Civil
War, Franco’s dictatorship,
and the struggle to restore
democracy.
10,000 Spanish Republicans who fled to France after the Civil War ended up in Nazi
concentration camps like Mathausen; nearly half died before the camps were liberated in
1945. © Museu d’Història de Catalunya, Amical de Mauthausen collection.
The Memorial Democràtic
was created in 2007 in
response to this “need to
remember.” The memorial
gathers and disseminates
recent history, documents
the testimonies of local
residents, organizes public
reparation and recognition
ceremonies, and pays tribute
to those who struggled for
freedom, democracy, and
autonomy in Catalonia.
Memorial Democràtic preserves the Republican airfield used during the Spanish Civil War in
Alfès to remind visitors today of the sacrifices made for democracy. © Memorial Democràtic.
Now at a time when
democratic representation
is alive in public debate, our
commitment is to
remember and share the
origins of the current
democratic system in
Catalonia: the values of the
Second Republic and the
struggles of the antiFrancoism movement.
Read more about Memorial
Democràtic.
Thousands in Barcelona attended demonstrations for the Statute of Autonomy in 1977. What
actions can we take today to uphold the democractic values they fought for? © Robert Ramos.
Through documentation of
personal histories and
public advocacy, Fund B92
is refocusing public
attention to the sensitive
but important moments in
our history as a starting
point for further education,
research, and
remembrance.
Former concentration camp prisoner and Holocaust survivor Pavle Minh shares his memories in
a documentary produced by Fund B92 and B92 Media Company. © Staro Sajmiste – History of a
Camp, 2009, Fond B92.
Fund B92’s educational
program offers youth today
a sensory experience of the
past in a safe space of
discussion and discovery
that goes beyond the
history books and into real
people’s lives.
In a former Jewish community center, primary school pupils participate in a role-play workshop
on WWII, experiencing history through touch, taste, sight, and sound. © Alexandra Collin, Fond
B92.
This comprehensive
understanding of the
context that generated
certain historical
development promotes
personal and collective
responsibility in the present
unstable political and
cultural context to build a
more coherent society
today.
Read more about The B92
Fund.
Serbia’s youth engage with street art to express changing attitudes: “In 2009 I want… Ratko
behind bars.” For years considered by many as a national hero, Serbian General Ratko Mladic is
now on trial for war crimes during the 1990s Balkan Wars. © Fond B92.
The past must be dealt with
directly and honestly if we
are to properly resolve the
issues arising from it. There
is no benefit in avoiding
controversy, no matter how
painful it may be.
Michael McDaid enters, from left, just seconds before he was shot dead by British soldiers on
Bloody Sunday, when they opened fire on a peaceful demonstration. © The Museum of Free
Derry.
Founded by survivors,
victims’ families, and
campaigners, the Museum
of Free Derry tells the
unashamedly subjective
story of how a community
united to demand civil
rights. It shows how people
can stand against and
defeat oppressive power.
The families of those killed on Bloody Sunday, an ‘ordinary’ group of people, campaigned for
years to force the British government to admit the truth about that day. © The Museum of Free
Derry.
After 39 years, the Bloody
Sunday campaign for truth
and justice was finally
vindicated. At the Museum
of Free Derry, we tell their
story, and others like it, to
inspire visitors to consider
their own histories and take
action against oppression.
Read more about the
Museum of Free Derry.
A community united and demanded equality and got it; a group of families united and
demanded truth and got it. © The Museum of Free Derry.
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Gernika, one of the first cities
bombed during the Spanish
Civil War in 1937, nowadays
has risen from its ashes.
Collecting and sharing with
the community memories of
what happened here is one of
the tasks of the Gernika Peace
Museum Foundation.
This threatening sky, from which bombs once fell, brought the wonderful rainbow that
provides protection to the memory of this city. © Hibai Agorria and CDBG.
Survivors and victims of unfair
and unnecessary suffering
leave their mark on life as a
legacy for new generations.
Working to keep their memory
alive requires a delicate
balance between looking to
the past and building for the
future, which we must
maintain.
The traces of life that remain after tragedy are vital for a better understanding of what
happened and not to forget. © Vinçent West and Hibai Agorria.
Rather than dwell in
bitterness, working to develop
new cultures of peace for
future generations is the path
taken by the city of Gernika,
awarded with the UNESCO City
of Peace Prize. The Gernika
Peace Museum is just one
player in this positive strategy
for reconciliation and
rebuilding.
Read more about Gernika
Peace Museum.
Children of Gernika in a moment of peace and quiet on the sculpture by Eduardo Chillida Gure
Aitaren Etxea – House of our Grandfather. © Hibai Agorria.
The entire city of Krakow is
a place of memory: after
occupation by the Nazis
from 1939 – 1945, the city
fell under the control of a
totalitarian Communist
government. Fortunately,
much of the city's historical
and architectural legacy was
preserved, illustrating more
than a century of Krakow’s
history.
On November 18, 1939, the chief of the Krakow District issued a sudden and divisive directive that
all Jews over twelve years were to wear white bands with the Star of David on their right arm.
© History Museum of the City of Krakow.
●
A Gestapo prison. A Polish
pharmacy in the ghetto.
The famed Oscar
Schindler's factory. Through
these three sites we try to
help our community
remember, reflect on, and
learn more about the past
and its impact on our
society today. Visitors
discover our history using
exhibits, artworks, personal
stories, and the city itself.
Students in the Gestapo Prison at the Pomorska Street Museum prepare for a comprehensive
remembrance tour connecting all three sites shaped by wartime Krakow. © History Museum of
the City of Krakow.
Only by taking the time to
know, understand, feel, and
remember the past can we
be more responsive in the
present and take action for
the future. We must
combat indifference, react
to contemporary
circumstances, and be
aware.
Read more about the History
Museum of the City of
Krakow.
Participants cross the finish line of the Remembrance Run - an activity arranged by the museum
to commemorate victims of war- in the former ghetto square. © History Museum of the City of
Krakow.
Not so long ago, Italian
emigrants decided to leave
all behind in search of a
better future, despite the
risks of the unknown and the
unsure. Mu.MA takes on the
challenging task to present
and discuss this recent and
difficult past.
In the early 20th century, many people left Genoa by ship to Brazil, Argentina, America, and
other destinations. © Mu.MA.
In ‘Memoria e Migrazioni’
we juxtapose the past with
our present. How is
migration today different
from – or similar to – the
experience of the past? Our
museum is a place where
visitors can consider this
question and challenge their
own attitudes.
The key visual of Memoria e Migrazioni asks, “What – if anything - makes migrants to Italy today
different from those who left Italy 100 years ago?” ©Mu.MA.
At Mu.MA, we feel it is our
responsibility as a museum
to promote integration and
to encourage Italians to see
immigration as more than a
challenge, but as an
opportunity for our future.
Read more about Mu.MA.
At the end of MeM, foreign-born students are invited to share their stories with friends and
classmates to help them relate to immigration on a personal level. © Mu.MA.
The Red Star Line
Museum is located in the
third class passenger
original departure
warehouses of the Red
Star Line shipping
company. From 1873 to
1934, the shipping
company transported
nearly two million
European emigrants to
the United States and
Canada.
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Emigrants departing from the Red Star Line warehouses, ca. 1905. © Collection Red Star Line
Museum, 2013.
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With an exhibition that
focuses on emigrant
stories, frames them as
timeless, fundamentally
human, and still relevant
today…
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Emigrants boarding a Red Star Line ship, ca. 1905. © Collection Janssens.
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…enable us to explore the
meaning of the Red Star
Line site and its history
today. We draw a diverse
public with different
attitudes and invite them
to reflect and talk on the
topic of migration past and
present.
Read more about the Red
Star Line Museum.
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Guided tour in the Red Star Line Museum. © Collection Red Star Line Museum, 2013.
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Remembering the past
begins with remembering
the victims. The personal
stories of victims and
survivors – along with our
own moral condemnation of
their fate—help us relate to
the past and motivate us to
learn from their experiences.
Luigi and Maria Paselli, 10-year old twins
killed in the Monte Sole military massacre of
1944. Primo Levi calls them “the drowned”. ©
Scuola di Pace Monte Sole.
Their sister Cornelia Paselli survived. Levi calls
her “the saved.” © Scuola di Pace Monte Sole.
At Monte Sole, we examine
not only the stories of
victims, but also those of
perpetrators. To do so,
allows us to try and rebuild
the context that was the
perpetrators' framework,
including the multiple range
of factors that led to those
people acting that violence.
This means to question
ourselves.
(Mid-left) Walter Reder, the Nazi chief of the 1944 operation in Monte Sole, “The Perpetrator”,
during the trial for war crimes. © Scuola di Pace Monte Sole.
By examining all aspects of
the past, and placing
ourselves in all roles, we can
interrogate our own
possibilities to express
violence, with words, with
actions, with silences.
Because the past is present.
Read more about Monte
Sole.
Who do you see in this image? Do we all have the potential to be victims? Perpetrators?
Bystanders? © Scuola di Pace Monte Sole.
The Youth Initiative for Human Rights
in Bosnia-Herzegovina (YHIR BH)
works to remember the Srebrenica
genocide that took place during the
Bosnian War in the 1990s. More than
8,000 male Bosniaks (Bosnian
Muslims) were killed in Srebrenica.
Croats and Bosniaks were also
imprisoned in concentration camps
built by the authorities of the
Republika Srpska (RS). One of these
camps was located in Prijedor,
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Anthropologist Ewa Klonowska during the exhumation, holding the hand of
one of the victims from the mass grave. © YIHR BH, August 2002, Kamneica,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Tarik Samarah.
Since 2010, YIHR BH has developed
educational tools and organized
youth camps in the area around
Prijedor. We use projects such as
"Srebrenica - mapping genocide” to
educate younger generations about
the war and the genocide, in an
effort to contribute to the process of
reconciliation in the country.
The “Srebrenica – mapping genocide” project. © YIHR BH.
Through this work, YIHR BH is
commited to raising awareness
about the crimes committed during
the Bosnian War, and to create the
necessary resources for ongoing
learning, research and a
permanent memorial.
Read more about the Youth
Initiative for Human Rights.
Young people gathered in one of our camps in Kozarac. ©YIHR BH.