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Project partners:

WAR CHILDHOOD MUSEUM, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, lead partner

ATRIUM, Forli, Italy

THE CIVIC ACADEMY FOUNDATION, Bucuresti, Romania

POST BELLUM, Prague, Czech Republic

The project bases its activities on two topics which are strictly interconnected when it comes to Memories of Totalitarian regimes and armed conflicts: CHILDHOOD and EVERYDAY LIFE under Totalitarian regimes and War.

In societies dominated by repression and violence, children are the most vulnerable part of the population. On the other hand, the stories of everyday life of people that suffered under regimes/war seems non significant within the general framework of important historical events, but they can be essential in helping new generations to better understand the consequences of brutal and anti-human regimes.

The aim is to stimulate the reflection of young people from four different countries on how the totalitarian regimes in Europe and armed conflicts in Bosnia affected the way of life of children so as to better understand the brutality of those systems, to comprehend and appreciate the benefits and rights that are given by peaceful and democratic Europe, as well as to commemorate and pass on the stories of the victims of these crimes.

The objectives of the project:

• collection of micro-stories in each involved country about personal experiences and life of ordinary people who lived their childhood under totalitarian regimes;
• implementation of “Twinning through History” activities by involving young participants (students) to “adopt“ personal stories and to take care of them by trying to get closer to the life of the person that suffered by enriching it with further personal research.
• meeting between students and witnesses: people who lived their childhood under Communism in Czech republic/Romania, Fascism in Italy and War in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• organization of public events such us reading of stories, visiting of places that marked the life of witnesses.
• realization of a documentary movie about micro-stories and production of e-book to to disseminate stories also in other countries

Visual identity of Project (click on image to download):

To see basic official info about project activities click on a image below:

Witnesses:

Witness:

Sead Vrana,

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

born in November 1975. in Sarajevo where he attended primary school and graduated aeronautical engineering in Mechanical Engineering High School in Sarajevo. His education was interrupted by war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as he joined Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina where he spent nearly 4 years.
At the begining of the war he was 16 years old. His family lived near the frontline, which constituted one of the main elements leading to Sead joining the Bosnian army, where he spent the whole war as a solider. At the same time he was also a student enrolled in high school in Sarajevo, and it was quite challenging for him to juggle life as a soldier and being a student. For most of the war, he and his family did not have electricity, water, nor fuel, meaning he also had to provide the necessary for its family.

Witness:

Tonina Laghi,

Forli, Italy

During Fascism, she then joined the Resistance, becoming a partisan courier (“staffetta”) with the battle name of ‘La bionda’ (“The blonde”). As a girl, she took part in the women’s uprising in Via della Ripa on 24 March 1944, which led to the liberation of 10 renegades sentenced to death.
But her story also tells us about something else: she was a child and a rebellious woman who did not accept certain standards within the family or society. Even after the fall of the regime, she continued fighting for labour, civil and women’s rights.

Witness:

Jarmila Kročková,

Prague, Czech Republic

born on November 5, 1947 in Ostrava-Vítkovice. Both her parents escaped at the end of 1930s from Nazism to England, where they met and married. Her mother was a Jewish refugee form Germany, her father a lawyer and Jewish refugees form Czechoslovakia.
After war the family settled down in Czecholsovakia, in the city of Ostrava. The father, Vítězslav Fuchsa, was a regional secretary of the communist party. In February 1951, he was tried in a show-trial for alleged-treason along with other prominent members of the party. Whereas many of them received capital punishment, Jarmila´s father was “lucky” to be sentenced only to fifteen years in prison. Also her mother, Emilie Fuschová, ended up in custody for two years.

Witness:

Niculina Moica,

Buchurest, Romania

She was born on the 21st of October 1943 in Ploieşti, where her parents had taken refuge during the Second World War, after running away from Reghin (Mureş County).
Niculina Moica comes from a family that started having problems with the communist regime in the early years of its establishment. In 1944-1945, her family moved back to Reghin and managed to buy 5 hectares of arable land. As a result, her father was labelled a kulak [chiabur in Romanian, meaning wealthy peasant] and was sentenced in 1949 to two months in prison for ‘sabotage’. Moved by her family’s suffering, but also influenced by them listening to Radio Free Europe at home, in 1959, Niculina Moica, a 9th grade high school student at “Petru Maior” High School in Reghin, joined the anti-communist organization ‘Union of the Free Youth’, which had been set up on the initiative of a high school colleague, Nicolae Munthiu, along with other peers.

Choose different languages for E-BOOK:

CZECH       ITALIAN     ROMANIAN