Post Bellum

Post Bellum is a Czech educational nonprofit organization based in Prague. The organization was formed in 2001 by a group of historians and journalists with the aim of increasing public knowledge of the 20th century history of the Czech Republic and neighboring countries, especially among younger generations.[1]: 2 [2] Post Bellum has collected thousands of witness accounts by conducting interviews with people who lived through significant periods in history as part of their documentation project, Stories of the 20th Century, and for their online archive, Memory of Nations. They organize various other projects and activities to raise awareness of modern history. The stated aim of the organisation is to "understand the past through authentic testimony".[1]: 2  Post Bellum is an associate member organization of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience.

This article is about the Czech-based non-profit educational organization. For other uses, see postbellum (disambiguation).

Post Bellum
Post Bellum z. ú.
Formation2001
Purposememorial
HeadquartersŠpanělská 1073/10, 120 00 Prague 2 - Vinohrady
Director and Founder
Mikuláš Kroupa
Director of Operations
Jan Polouček
Websitehttps://www.postbellum.cz/english/

Memory of Nations

The organisation has created an archive of oral historical testimony entitled Memory of Nations, in partnership with the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes and Czech Radio.[1]: 4  The archive is the largest online collection of testimonies in Central Europe, documenting the stories of "war veterans, Holocaust survivors, political prisoners, as well as members of the Communist Party, the Secret Police, and the People’s Militias".[1]: 4  Witnesses are interviewed in their original language, then translated into English. The interviews are then archived online, where they can be browsed using different categories, dates, places, and so on, in order to locate anecdotes and interviews regarding specific events. Initially, Czech Radio provided the technical support to carry out the interviews and witness recordings, which were made exclusively in audio form and were available in wav or mp3 formats. In 2014, the organisation began using Eye Direct technology to record the testimonies.[2] As of June 2023, there are 15968 witnesses in the database, 8357 published stories, as well as over 120,000 images and 50,000 clips.[3]

Post Bellum team in 2013.

Notable people who have provided testimony for the database include Zdeňka Deitchová, Petr Placák, Augustin Bubník, Václav Havel, Helga Hošková-Weissová, Petr Pithart, Magdaléna Vášáryová, Milan Knížák, František Zahrádka, Felix Kolmer, and Rudolf Bereza.

Post Bellum also developed an app, Memory of Nations Sites, with an interactive map allowing users to access archive materials from the 20th century related to their current location.

The Memory of Nations Awards
Memory of Nations Award ceremony in 2011.

The Memory of Nations Award is awarded to five recipients each year, since 2010, in recognition of bravery in standing up to totalitarian regimes.[1]: 15  Recipients are chosen from among 20 nominees by a panel of judges from the fields of historical research, journalism, and politics. The ceremony takes place each year on 17 November, the anniversary of the beginning of the Velvet Revolution, and is broadcast live on television. Each year, the award ceremony has a different theme. In November 2014, the award was presented to people involved in resistance to the Iron Curtain in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Germany, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of communism in Europe.

The Run for Memory of Nations

The Run for Memory of Nations is an annual long-distance run organised to remember and honour Holocaust victims, political prisoners, veterans, and dissidents.

Stories from the 20th Century

Stories from the 20th Century is a radio show telling witnesses' stories from Post Bellum's Memory of Nations archive, that has aired every Sunday since 2006 on Czech Radio.[1]: 14  The people interviewed include war veterans, Holocaust survivors, political prisoners of Nazi and Communist times, and members of minority groups.

Stories from the 20th Century was also the name of a documentary series that aired on Czech Television, focused on life during Normalization. The series featured interviews with StB agents, miners, members of the Communist party, gay people, and black market currency dealers.[1]: 14 

Some episodes were adapted into books by the authors of the programme, Mikuláš Kroupa and Adam Drda. In 2008, the book Cruel Century (Kruté století) was published, followed in 2009 by the publication We didn't want to live under communism (V komunismu jsme žchtěli nechtěli). In 2014 and 2015, the authors contributed to the Unknown heroes (Neznámí hrdinové) book series.

Educational initiatives
Open Air Exposition opening organised in 2009 by Post Bellum in Prague.

Post Bellum is involved with a number of initiatives aimed at increasing public knowledge of totalitarian regimes, especially among young people. They use witness testimonies as part of workshops in schools in which students are encouraged to think critically about historical events,[1]: 8  as well as "Experience Workshops", which involve immersion in historical events and students participating in role plays of events from the mid-1900s and the Normalization period.[1]: 11 [4]

Another educational initiative is "Our Neighbors’ Stories",[1]: 9  a program in which students record witness testimonies locally, which are then retold through radio or TV. Students also carry out research into the witnesses' situations which is presented together with the testimony. Post Bellum has also published a number of educational books such as We Are Still At War and Forced Labour, graphic novels based on true stories of people affected by totalitarian regimes.

Memory of Nations Institutes

Memory of Nations Institutes (MNI) are multimedia exhibitions about the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, based on the testimonies of those who directly experienced them from the Memory of Nations archives.

The first MNI was inaugurated on 15 March 2022 in Pardubice. The institute's core exhibition is "Quiet Heroes", which narrates stories from the 20th century using a blend of projections, unconventional effects, augmented reality, and interactive displays. The exhibition immerses visitors in World War II alongside two witnesses, Jaryna Mlchová and Tomáš Sedláček, and also includes three themed workshops: "Jews in the Protectorate," "The Second Resistance," and "Political Prisoners."[5] The second MNI opened on 22 March 2022 in Olomouc, with an audiovisual exhibit entitled "Revealed Stories of the 20th Century", highlighting the stories of five witnesses to the Second World War and the Communist era in the Olomouc Region.[5]

Later that year, another MNI was inaugurated in Brno. Post Bellum held 47 public events at the institute's city-center location at Radnická 10, including discussions featuring war veteran Roman Kopřiva, author Pavel Kosatík, and historian Denisa Nečasová. During autumn 2022, debates were convened with three of the candidates in the 2023 Czech presidential election: Danuše Nerudová, Marek Hilšer, and Pavel Fischer.[5]

Other activities
Replica of Mauthausen Concentration camp in Charles Square, Prague, 2012.

Post Bellum has also documented witnesses in other parts of the world, such as the United States, Poland, and Israel.[1]: 6  They have partnerships with the Visegrad Fund and the German Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ) to record witness testimonies, and, in 2017, began a partnership with Florida International University to document the testimonies of Cuban dissidents.[1]: 6 [6]

Post Bellum has put on about 128 exhibitions all around Europe.[1]: 17  In May–July 2012, they built a replica of Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Charles Square in Prague as part of an exhibition to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Memory of Nations launched a crowdfunding campaign to provide military equipment and aid to the Ukrainian army. Testimonies of the conflict were also recorded and collected.[7]

References
  1. "English Brochure: Post Bellum" (PDF). Post Bellum. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  2. "Záznamy pamětníků nyní i obrazem. Post Bellum a ČT budují obří archiv | Kultura". Lidovky.cz (in Czech). 22 May 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
  3. "Memory of Nations". www.memoryofnations.eu. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
  4. "Workshopy". Post Bellum (in Czech). Retrieved 13 June 2023.
  5. "Post Bellum Annual Report 2022" (PDF). Post Bellum. 30 August 2023. pp. 13–14. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
  6. Geoffray, Marie-Laure (September 2020). ""Less Velvet for the Cuban Transition? Transnational circulations and learning processes between Central European, Cuban and Latin American networks"". Revue d'études comparatives Est-Ouest. 51 (2–3): 185–224. doi:10.3917/receo1.512.0185. S2CID 229190409 – via Cairn.info.
  7. "New focus for historical testimonies NGO – direct aid to Ukrainian Army". Radio Prague International. 4 March 2022. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
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