Photo: Philippa Hill
On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the war crimes committed in Tuscany, EUSTORY alumni from Italy and Germany came together near Castelnuovo Berardenga where civilians were shot and killed in July 1944.
How did the war crimes of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS affect the families of the victims and perpetrators and how does the second generation deal with the difficult legacy of this history today? Young EUSTORY alumni from Germany and Italy discussed these issues and searched for traces of a history that is still challenging both Italy and Germany. Participants of the History Camp were able to meet contemporary witnesses: Survivors of the massacre, sons and daughters of victims as well as perpetrators. They attended a binational History Convention and talked to Kerstin von Lingen (University of Heidelberg) about the history and the way contemporary witnesses, historians and politicians from both countries deal with it.
Another highlight of the History Camp was the attendance of an open-air theatre production at a historical place 0f a massacre on Italian civilians by members of a German SS-division in Tuscany in July 1944. In this play, Ulrich Waller (art director of the Hamburg St. Pauli Theater) together with German and Italian stage directors and actors staged an artistic retrospection on German war crimes, giving space to unheard reports of eye witnesses from the local massacres. «
For more information have a look at the History Campus: www.historycampus.org/2014/10/10/war-crimes-tuscany-1944-historical-exploration/#more-945
Or check the website of the project (both in Italian and German): www.albicocche-rosse.de
