The Foundation’s second youth event of the EASTory through their Eyes project took place in Pilsen, Czechia, between 2 and 4 May. The three-day event involved a total of 90 students from Pilsen and its region and took place in the framework of the 2022 Liberation Festival.
After visiting Krakow last month, the EU-funded EASTory through their Eyes exhibition travelled to Pilsen, and it was on display at the Moving Station cultural centre. For three consecutive days, 2, 3 and 4 May, a youth event involved school groups from Pilsen city and region. During these days, the students could actively learn about Pilsen in WWII and the stories of people who experienced it, be it in the form of a diary or from the words of eyewitnesses.
The event included a theatre workshop based on the story of Věra Kohnová, a 12-year-old Pilsen citizen of Jewish origin who was deported and died in a concentration camp. Věra kept a diary, recounting life in Pilsen during the Nazi occupation. Students impersonated some of the scenes described in her diary, and noted down their impressions and feelings on a worksheet.
The day continued with a guided tour of Pilsen, including the house where Věra Kohnová and her family lived, now marked by four stolpersteine. In the afternoon, it was the turn of a very special meeting with two eyewitnesses of WWII: 92-year-old Richard Smola, one of the faces in the EASTory through their Eyes exhibition, and 86-year-old Pavel Hauzner. The eyewitnesses discussed their memories of war, life under the occupation, the liberation of Pilsen by the US Army on 6 May 1945 and the 1948 communist takeover in a lively and inspiring conversation.
The EASTory through their Eyes project continues with a youth event at the Bastogne War Museum (Belgium) on 17 May. You can now watch the recap video of the EASTory through their Eyes event in Krakow on our YouTube channel.
