The 90s: American Peace Corps in Poland

Did you know that the volunteers of the American Peace Corps were working also in Poland?

I worked on a one-year documentary project about their work. Effects of the project are a bilingual publication and a bilingual Web-presentation: www.korpus.karta.org.pl (pl) and http://korpus.karta.org.pl/?lang=en (en). Some collected photos you can see here.

Jabłonowski as a military symbol of the region and his meaning for L'viv

Commemoration of cities' and villages' founders is a very important part of the local identity.

On July, 12 (2012) Kosmach (near to Ivano-Frankivsk, former Slanislawow) celebrated the anniversary of the establishment of the village Kosmach . On this occasion a conference was held. I was invited to give a speech and write an essay on Jabłonowski as a military symbol of the region and his meaning for the region.

Volhynia 1943: how to teach about?

The year 2013 was the 70th anniversary of the massacres of Volhynia.

That's why the Polish Radio, the 3rd programme (Klub Trójki) organised the discussion "Volhynia 1943: how to teach about it?" ("Wołyń 1943: jak o tym uczyć?") on June, 14 (2012) I took part on it. The discussion consider the massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia in 1943-44, committed by Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

Monument in memory of polish citizens of Janowa Dolina in Volhynia murdered by Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) on 22-23 of April 1943 (Pomnik Polaków zmordowanych w Janowej Dolinie na Wołyniu przez UPA 22-23 kwietnia 1943), July 2007, Author: Paweł Duński

Human rights and restorative justice

Do you know what is restorative justice? It is an approach to justice that focuses on the needs of the victims and the offenders, as well as the involved community, instead of satisfying abstract legal principles or punishing the offender. ("A New Kind of Criminal Justice", Parade, October 25, 2009, p. 6.)

The methods of restorative justice are often a topic of education about and for humen rights, which implements e.g. the Polish Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights.

I took part on a 3-months-workshop of the Foundation about education about human rights (2012). The results of the workshop were very practical. The participants prepared and conducted one workshop at a self-chosen institution.

Polish Eastern Borderland in Węgliniec

Commemoration of an expulsion can help to overcome the trauma of expelled. This is the case with the Museum of the Polish Eastern Borderland in Węgliniec, which I visited.

The history of the Museum you can read and see here. It's of course a very emotional and not professional museum, but it's interesting to see and to listen what the whole equipment, documents and photos mean for the museum's founder Alfred Janicki.

Galicia and the petroleum industry

Galician poverty is a slogan from the 19th century. But not many people know that Galicia was a prosperous industry region at that time.

To get to know more about it you should read the book "Three-city in the borderland.  Truskawiec - Drohobycz - Borysław" ("Kresowe trójmiasto. Truskawiec - Drohobycz - Borysław") of Sanisław S. Nicieja. It is a popular science book which shows not very known facts about the region.

Memory places and culture of remembrance in L'viv

Remembrance culture and memory places in L'viv are more and more interesting as a research topic.

To give the students the opportunity of researches on the topic Prof. Jürgen Angelow (University Potsdam/University of the Saarland) organised a seminar on this topic in L'viv 2007 and 2012.

The topics were divided into 6 sessions:

Teaching materials to human rights

Teaching human rights is a challenge for people from different fields and institutions. That's why the Centre of Human Rights Education of the University of Teacher Education in Lucerne is organising the Human Rights Education Symposium in Lucerne.

The topic of the Symposium in 2012 was the developing of teaching materials on human rights education. I took part on following workshops:

Civil society and civic life in Poland

To support relationships between nations the knowledge of journalists should be supported.

Get to know this great initiative! Before the European Football Championship 2012 more than 20 journalists of different German media went to Warsaw, Kiew and Charkow to get to know more about the civic life in the countries and preparation to the Championship.