Call for application for the "Silent heroes, living memory” project

What is oral history? How should we talk about the experience of WWII to witnesses to history? How do those witnesses talk about Jews hiding during the war, and how do contemporary artists engage with the subject? How can cinema, theatre, and visual arts reflect and create social memory? How is the subject of Jews hiding during the war treated in other countries?

The project is aimed at anyone who would like to gather first experiences related to oral history or deepen their knowledge. It will constitute a unique opportunity to cooperate with historians, educators, witnesses to history, and artists, as well as to exchange experiences with project participants from other countries. Together we will learn about the lives of Jews who went into hiding during WWII and of those who helped them.

The project is mostly based on exchanging experiences with foreign partners from the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, and Hungary. Between June 2014 and July 2015, a series of five international meetings will take place; they will be attended by representatives of the partner organisations and by the project participants. The project will leave a lasting effect in the form of an on-line educational tool presenting stories of hiding Jews in the five partner countries.

The project offers:

- taking part in meetings concerning oral history, workshops teaching how to work with oral history archives, meetings with witnesses to history,

-  taking part in meetings concerning art pieces dealing with the theme of hiding during the war, including a possibility of taking part in creating programme supporting the “Hideout” stage show prepared by the neTTheatre team.

- taking part in one foreign meeting of partners (in Hohenems, Berlin, Budapest or Amsterdam),

- possibility of taking part in the international meeting of partners in Warsaw,

- possibility of taking part in creating an international on-line educational tool presenting the history of hiding,

- possibility of engaging in other thematic projects carried out by the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, in particular in “The Polish Righteous – Recalling Forgotten History” project concerning the memory of Poles who saved Jews during the war (www.sprawiedliwi.org.pl).

The partners in the project are: Stichting Castrum Peregrini (Netherlands), Joods Historisch Museum (Netherlands), Judisches Museum Hohenems (Austria), Gedenkstatte Stille Helden in der Stiftung Gedenkstatte Deutscher Widerstand (Germany) and MAROM Klub Egyesület (Hungary).

The project is aimed at adults who are able to communicate in English. We would like to invite mostly those people who have not yet dealt with Jewish history and culture in academic or professional fields.

Participating in the project is free. The organiser covers all costs of foreign travel (transport, accommodation, insurance, meals). The organiser does not cover costs of participating in local activities.

The application form can be found here.

The deadline for handing in applications is 9 March 2014. From all those who apply to the project we will choose 16 participants who will take part in foreign meetings.

Sending applications, contact, more info: [email protected], tel. 22 47 10 377.

The project “Silent Heroes, Living Memory. The relation between the memory of hiding Jews during WWII and active learning of adults” will take place from September 2013 to July 2015 with financial aid from the European Commission as a part of the “Lifelong Learning” Programme.

The project was carried out with financial aid of the European Commission.

The project reflects the opinions of its author; the European Commission does not take responsibility for its content.