News

From 8 to 9 March 2024, at the Faculty of History of the University of Białystok, there was held an international conference on "How to talk about war with participants of cultural events". The even's organiser was the Army Museum in Białystok together with the aforementioned the Faculty of History, in partnership with the Norwegian Falstad Centre and the Łukasz Górnicki Książnica Podlaska in Bialystok. Our Museum was represented at the conference by the Deputy Director Dr. Renata Kobylarz-Buła.

The event witch brought together museum workers, educators and researches was a recapitulation of the experiences of the two-year project "Remembrance Education. Cultural Education of Adults", conducted by the Białystok's Army Museum and the Książnica Podlaska, and the Falstad Centre in Ekne, Norway. The main object of the project was the development of cooperation between the Museum and its partners, and adult residents of Białystok's housing estates with the limited access to culture. The thematic keystone of these activities became the wartime history of Białystok. The cooperation with the Norwegian partner facilitated to draw a comparison between the fates of Białtystok and Ekne during the Second World War, and culminated in the development of universal content on the value of peace and consequences of wars. In addition, the project's conclusions have been included in the Museum's audience development strategy.

Among the speakers on the first panel were representatives of the Museum of Independence Traditions from Łódź and the Ukrainian Memorial Museum "Territory of Terror" (Ukraine) stood out. The highlight of the second part on education were speeches delivered by workers of National Museum of the History of Ukraine (given online, as they were not allowed to leave the country) on the exhibitions they create in places where "just a moment ago" history occurred. The following exhibitions: "The Azovstal: a new meaning" and "The Yahidne Concentration Camp, bringing closer, through the voices of witnesses, the story of the village of Yahidne, which was captured during Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, resulting in the aggressors holding 300 people, including at least 60 children, in one cramped basement for a month, were given as an example.

The conference was accompanied by additional engaging events, such as a historical walking tour of the city and study visits to the Army Museum and the Military Park in Białystok, while the conference itself had a truly international dimension, with speakers not only from Ukraine, but also Lithuania, Germany and Norway.

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