TIRANA – The final event of the Memory Lab’s seven-day annual study trip and workshop took place in Tirana on Friday. Entitled “Unbunkering the past: How is Albania dealing with its (communist) history?” the event explored how Albania is dealing with its past, especially the communist period, and connected this with experiences from other European societies.
Forty participants together with the representatives of embassies, civil society organizations and secondary schools from Albania, discussed the event’s findings, conclusions and questions on how to connect memory-initiatives from Albania and from other European countries, what to take into consideration when developing regional and European projects dealing with the communist past, especially with young people and finally, how to deal with abandoned memory sites
“It is important to look at and study the history objectively,” one of the event’s participants and representative of the Croatian History Teachers’ Association Ms Dea Marić said and added that this should be done by looking at several resources, always having in mind that it is hard to have a whole picture of the past events.
“We have to teach young people to think historically but always having in mind the question how communication and knowledge function in today’s world,” Ms Marić highlighted during the discussion.
Memory Lab is a trans-European exchange platform on history and remembrance. The network is gathering persons and organizations from Southeast Europe and from Western/Central Europe, which are working on memory sites and remembrance education related to difficult pasts. RYCO supported the organization of this year’s edition of the networks’s gathering.
