The project aims to strengthen practices of commemoration of the Holocaust and other genocides committed during the Second World War, both in partner countries and at the EU level.
Public debates will be initiated on the most effective ways to confront Holocaust distortions. It will also create educational materials based on the personal stories of witnesses, victims, and survivors. Another key objective is to analyze and highlight the forms of resistance and organized opposition during the period. Project activities include coordination meetings, interdisciplinary round tables, educational visits for young people and political representatives to significant Holocaust memorial sites (such as Lipa, Maribor, Auschwitz, and Stara Gradiška), photographic workshops, and trainings for teachers and educators. Conferences and seminars will also be organized to bring to the attention of the public, decision-makers, and other stakeholders best practices in combating the distortion of history.
Expected outcomes of the project include research studies on Holocaust denial, recommendations for effective public policies to combat distortion, a set of educational 10 tools based on biographies and testimonies, as well as a digital exhibition and an interactive platform with personal stories.
Through these initiatives, the project aims to bring history closer to the people and to contribute to a better understanding and ownership of the past in order to prevent such tragedies from happening again. Thus, through a combination of research, education, advocacy, and innovative methods of transmitting memory, the project “The Power of Personal Stories in Confronting Oblivion” aims to build a solid framework for preserving historical truth and strengthening a European culture of remembrance and responsibility.
The project is funded by the European Union through the CERV program and is implemented in collaboration with: Documenta – Center for dealing with the past (Croatia); Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Rijeka (Croatia); Topografia per la storia (Italy); The Max Mannheimer Study Center(Germany); EUROM – The European Observatory on Memories (Spain) and The Center of Jewish Cultural Heritage Synagogue Maribor (Slovenia).