Western Balkans: Learning from the past for a peaceful future

Last updated on Tuesday, 29/09/2020

EU-funded remembrance projects are helping young people learn from history, promoting European values in the Western Balkans and beyond in a bid to ensure war, genocide and totalitarianism remain a thing of the past.

2020 marks 75 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp where the Nazis killed 1.1 million people, most of them Jews from all over Europe. In total, 6 million Jews perished in the Holocaust.

It’s also the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, the worst mass killing in Europe since World War II, which claimed the lives of over 8 000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys. More than 120 000 people died in the Yugoslav Wars between 1991 and 2001 – many of them women, children and unarmed civilians. 

As memories fade and witnesses to these atrocities grow older and die, what’s out there to help you learn from the past and ensure history doesn’t repeat itself? 

In the Western Balkans, a number of organisations, with funding from the EU’s Europe for Citizens programme, are working on remembrance projects geared specifically towards young people and teachers. They’re part of a broader effort to promote peace, stability and democratic values as the region moves towards EU integration.

Here are some of these initiatives:

Witness to war 

During the Yugoslav Wars, the city of Sarajevo was under siege for almost four years. More than 5 400 civilians were killed during that period, often by snipers. 

In today's Sarajevo, the Urban association is actively reaching out to young people, both in Bosnia and abroad, to help convey what war – and totalitarianism – means for everyday life. 

In cooperation with schools and partners in Bosnia, Czechia, Italy and Romania, it’s coordinating an EU-funded project that makes it possible for students to engage with people who have lived through such times.  

‘The project is based on interaction,’ says coordinator Haris Čalkić. 

To reach a bigger audience, the project team will produce a documentary on how war and totalitarianism affect people’s lives incorporating witness accounts.

Fighting Roma discrimination

The Nazis’ victims during the Holocaust included Roma. In many parts of Europe, this minority is still facing discrimination. 

In the North Macedonian city of Kratovo, young people set up the Rroma SSN association that works on bridging remaining divides.

With the help of EU funding, the group organises training sessions, exchange programmes and carries out research. 

‘We are dedicated to encouraging positive values within both Roma and non-Roma communities,’ says project manager Mustafa Jakupov. ‘All of this has been possible thanks to the engagement and enthusiasm of the young people working with us and believing in what we want to achieve.’ 

Case in point: the group’s programme coordinator was just 17 when she joined the organisation as a volunteer.

‘We believe in young people, in their capacities to bring change, peace and respect to their communities,’ says Jakupov. ‘We want young people to be owners of their ideas and future!’

Teacher training

Teachers play important roles in young people’s lives. With that in mind, the Shoah Memorial, a Paris museum, documentation and education centre dedicated to the memory of the Holocaust, brings teachers from Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia together to gain historical knowledge, share experiences and openly discuss sensitive issues linked to local history. 

‘People from those countries have what we call conflicting memories,’ says Bruno Boyer who coordinates the Shoah Memorial’s EU-funded teacher training project. ‘Past conflicts have shaped the way they see themselves. But they all share a memory of the Holocaust and we use that as a starting point.’ 

Teachers share their perspectives with colleagues whose parents may have fought against their parents. This helps them better understand the ‘absurdity of war’, Boyer adds. 

Having gone through the training, ‘they find it a lot easier to pass knowledge of past events on to young people’.