Since 1954, following the adoption of the Cultural Convention, the Council of Europe has been working on history in response to Article 2, which stipulates: “Each Contracting Party shall, insofar as may be possible:
a. encourage the study by its own nationals of the languages, history and civilisation of the other Contracting Parties and grant facilities to those Parties to promote such studies in its territory; and
b. to promote the study of its language or languages, history and civilisation in the territory of the other Contracting Parties and grant facilities to the nationals of those Parties to pursue such studies in its territory.”
As part of the intergovernmental programme on history education, the Education Department has launched a series of Forums on key topics concerning history in the first quarter of the 21st century. In November 2022, the first Forum of which this publication is the report, focused on “Sites of Memories: Learning spaces for democracy“ was held in Belgrade. The second Forum, looked at “History Education in the digital age” and took place in Brussels in March 2023. The third Forum in Bologna in May 2024 will focus on the challenges of history in higher education, before a final Forum in 2025 will take up the conclusions of the three previous.
Thinking about the role of places of remembrance at a time when, in the case of the Shoah, the witnesses are disappearing, means questioning their place in our societies in the 21st century. Through museums, commemorations and historical research, how can these places, from Nantes to Sighet, via Guernica and Belgrade, become places where our citizenship is inscribed, and under what conditions and with what pedagogies can these places best speak of their history and thus enlighten our present? These are just some of the questions addressed in this book.
The idea is not to find the answers, but to explore avenues and share practices, so that places of remembrance can be fully effective places for learning about democracy.
