Following the kick-off meeting that took place in Brussels this June, work on the “Persecution through their Eyes” project is off to a great start and the next steps have already been defined.
The LRE Foundation has partnered with Camp Vught National Memorial (Netherlands), Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation (Germany), LRE Italy, representation of the National Peace Park of Sant’Anna di Stazzema (Italy), and “Grodzka Gate ‐ NN Theatre” Centre in Lublin (Poland), to implement “Persecution through their Eyes”. The project is funded by the European Union and focuses on a deeper understanding of the international dimension of persecution during the Second World War while emphasising the importance of human rights and the fight against all forms of discrimination based on race, religion, ethnicity, gender, identity and sexual orientation.
The exhibition
One of the main aspects of the project will be an exhibition, both virtual and physical, which will take place in all four partner institutions and will tell a wide array of stories and experiences related to persecution during WWII, concerning different people and places. A key value of the exhibition is its multi-national, multi-perspective and education-orientated approach. The biographies that will constitute the core of the collection will be prepared by experienced historians, anthropologists and educators from each partner organisation.
Upcoming events
Two complementary events have already been fixed. Firstly, in December the Shoah Memorial in Milan will host a workshop with all the project partners, an opportunity to combine the different experiences and approaches and define the final exhibition. Secondly, an international workshop will be organised for educators, tour guides and teachers, to deepen the educational understanding and enable a focus on storytelling techniques, in order to better present the topic to young people. Another important part of “Persecution through their Eyes” is the four youth events that will be organised in 2023, one in each partner location. These aim to make the different stories of persecution during WWII more accessible and well-known among younger generations.
Joanna Roman, LRE Foundation Project Manager: “It is a pleasure for us to cooperate with such experienced institutions that bring their individual perspectives and approaches to this project. We consider it extremely valuable that we constantly exchange our experiences and thus build the structure of the project together. We hope that the forthcoming events and exhibition will fully reflect the effects of our work, which aims at a deeper understanding of persecution during World War II.”
