The Life Journeys of Croatian Prisoners at KZ Buchenwald
“From the Sava to Ettersberg – The Life Journeys of Croatian Prisoners at Buchenwald Concentration Camp” is a Croatian-German project focusing on the transnational history of forced deportations and forced labour during the Second World War.
The Sava is one of the most significant rivers in Croatia. It is the river on whose banks the capital city, Zagreb, is situated, but also the river along which the system of Jasenovac concentration camps extended. Ettersberg, on the other hand, is a hill near Weimar, on whose slopes the main camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp system (KZ Buchenwald) was located.
Running from mid-October 2026 to the end of June 2027, the project’s first phase involves researching and preparing materials on prisoners from Croatia who were incarcerated at Buchenwald, laying the groundwork for two Croatian-German seminars for 20 participants aged 18 to 35.
The first seminar will take place in Weimar from 7 to 13 December 2026, and the second seminar, involving the same participants, will be held in Zagreb from 15 to 21 March 2027. The seminars will combine guided study visits to memorial sites, expert lectures, discussions of prisoners’ biographies, and creative reflection. The planned creative outputs of the project include a project publication, twelve short one-minute films, and one five-minute film about the project.
The project “From the Sava to Ettersberg – The Life Journeys of Croatian Prisoners at Buchenwald Concentration Camp” is being implemented in cooperation between the Retrovizor association and the European Youth Education Centre (EJBW) in Weimar. The project is made possible through financial support from the EVZ Foundation.
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European Culture(s) of Remembrance
The title “European Culture(s) of Remembrance” stays for event series within the long-term project “Venues of Vicitms // Venues of Perpetrators. Mapping, Decoding & Processing the Role of Historical civic education in (European) Youth Work”. During the period 2025-2027, six international activities will take place in the form of advanced seminars for multipliers in the field of history and/or civic (youth) education.
The first event in the frame of the project “European Culture(s) of Remembrance” took place in March 2025 in Germany. The project was continued with the seminar in Croatia in September 2025. The third seminar was held in March 2026 in Czechia and the fourth seminar took place in October 2026 in Greece. The project will continue in Spring 2027. Further information and call for participants will be published by the end of 2026.
All project events seek to interrelate four central aspects: firstly, each event will focus the question of how major historical events in the visited countries are represented in the local/regional/national culture of remembrance. Secondly, each event will question in how far past or contemporary local/regional/national culture(s) of remembrance shape the political and social dynamics in the visited countries. Thirdly, each event will bring insights into the local practices of historic civic education. Fourthly, space for exchange and networking among participants will be provided.
The project “European Culture(s) of Remembrance” is conceptualized and coordinated by Markus Rebitschek (EJBW, Weimar) and Boris Stamenić (Retrovizor, Zagreb). The project is implemented with the financial support of the European Union and the Federal Republic of Germany.
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Youth in Cold-War Europe and beyond
The project “Youth in Cold-War Europe and beyond” explores themes and methods from the field of historical-political education within the framework of international youth exchange activities. In terms of content, the project aims to link the political history of contemporary Europe with the social and cultural history of the continent.
Two central questions are the focus of the project: First, how did different regimes in Europe in the second half of the 20th century attempt to shape the attitudes and behavior of young people? Second, how did young individuals and groups deal with state policies and practices toward youth, what options for action were available to them at the time, and what were the consequences of not accepting rules and norms or actively resisting them?
The first edition of the international summer camp “Youth in Cold-War Europe and beyond” took place in August 2025 in Weimar. The encounter brought together 35 participants aged 18 to 27 from six European countries. The second edition of the International Summer Camp “Youth in Cold-War Europe” was held from August 28 to September 6, 2026. The latest gathering in Weimar brought together participants from Croatia, Czechia, Germany, Portugal and Lithuania.
The project emerged from the cooperation between the association Retrovizor and the European Youth Education Centre Weimar (EJBW). The project is made possible through the financial support of the European Union and the Federal Republic of Germany.