Sound in the Silence

ended

'Sound in the Silence' is an interdisciplinary remembrance project aimed at encouraging high school students to critically reflect on difficult aspects of the 20th-century history and their importance for today’s Europe, with the help of non-formal learning methods and artistic means of expression. Each project edition takes place in different memory site connected to an important moment in Europe’s history: Kaunas 9th Fort Museum (Lithuania), House of the Wannsee Conference (Germany), Jasenovac Memorial (Croatia) and Mauthausen Memorial (Austria). Project participants –groups of local and international youth accompanied by their teachers– explore the history of a memorial site in broader European context, learn about the fate of various persecuted groups, and develop civic competence. Drawing on their reflections and emotional reactions to what they come to learn, students work together with a team of professional artists to create art performance. At the same time their teachers take part in workshops on interdisciplinary methods of teaching history and exchange experiences with peers from different countries. The final performance put on by the youth for the local community serves not only as a conclusion of the learning process, but also as an opportunity for various groups of local policymakers, educators and journalists invited to the event to discuss interdisciplinary methods in history education, as well as activities aiming at safeguarding sites of memory. Upon implementing 4 editions of the project, a concluding seminar is organised in Brussels to sum up the project results, discuss examples of best practice in civic and history education concerning the crimes committed by totalitarian regimes, the Holocaust in particular, as well as sensitize officials responsible for shaping the memory/remembrance policies, educationists and history textbook writers to the crucial role of local memory sites in educating current and future generations about Europe’s past.