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CONTENTS: 

MEMORY ISSUES IN THE NEWS
Spain Passes Historic Memory Law
Nanjing Memorial Stirs Discord In Japan-China Relations
Germany To Build Memorial, Hopes For Better Relations With Poland

FEATURED PROGRAMS
Archivos Y Dictaduras: Actualidad Y Perspectivas - Buenos Aires, Argentina
2nd Annual Youth Camp At Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram - Ahmedabad, India

EXCHANGING SITES OF CONSCIENCE PRACTICES: CONFERENCES & WORKSHOPS
Idea Exchange: Development Of Museo De La Memoria - New York, USA
Staff Exchange: Monte Sole Peace School Foundation Visits Constitution Hill - Johannesburg, South Africa
COMING UP:
History Behind Glass: Healing Through Remembering Conference - Belfast, Northern Ireland
International Sites Of Conscience Summit - Monte Sole, Italy
Whose America? Who's American?: Diversity, Civil Liberties, And Social Justice - Colorado, USA

NEW! ADVOCACY AND ACTION
Heralding Freedom: The Gulag, American Civil Rights Movement, And Human Rights Today - Atlanta, USA
Coalition Members Meet With Italian President - Rome, Italy

RESOURCES AND PUBLICATIONS
Coordination Of Repressive Actions In South America: A Selection Of Sources And Resources
www.sitesofconscience.org Now In Four Languages
Special Public Historian Issue On Sites Of Conscience

NEW INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS
Le Bois Du Cazier (Marcinelle, Belgium)
Heart Mountain Foundation (Wyoming, USA)

Spain Passes Historic Memory Law
 
In the fall of 2007, Spain passed its first "Law of Historical Memory" condemning the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco and addressing the legacies of his rule. The law marks Spain's first attempt to remember and acknowledge its past dictatorship, which had been silenced in the interests of national harmony. The bill has been controversial because some conservatives view it as an unnecessary re-opening of old wounds while others see it as "partial" to some victims and not inclusive of others. At the same time, human rights groups have opposed many elements of the bill, saying that it falls short of providing justice.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,514796,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/oct/11/spain.international
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/31/europe/EU-GEN-Spain-Civil-War-Legislation.php
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/19/opinion/edosnos.php

Nanjing Memorial Stirs Discord In Japan-China Relations
 
In December 2007, China's state-run Nanjing Memorial of the 1937 Rape of Nanking reopened after a two-year renovation to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the massacre. Though Japanese officials attended the opening of the memorial, there has been concern about a possible deterioration in Japan-China relations. Fearing that the contents of the Memorial Hall could "inspire anti-Japanese feeling and animosity" among Chinese citizens the Japanese government requested that China tone down the contents of the memorial. Though the hints of discord are attributed to the dispute about the number of victims, in fact, the strain on relations between the two countries relates to the contested history that the memorial commemorates.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-12/13/content_5481853.htm
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20071213f1.html
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/world/20080126TDY04304.htm

Germany To Build Memorial, Hopes For Better Relations With Poland
 
On March 20, 2008, Germany announced its decision to go forward with building a €29m Berlin memorial to millions of Europeans expelled across national borders after WWII. The memorial has been a point of contention with Poland and other European countries disagreeing about its form, for fear that the memorial would present Berlin as the victim, rather than the villain in the Nazi period. In its announcement Germany reiterated that the memorial would present the Nazis as perpetrators behind "one of the most painful parts of German and European history". While Germany is hoping that this decision will ease relations with Poland, Poland sees the memorial as a purely German project and stresses that history should be remembered accurately.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/c3554848-f61d-11dc-8d3d-000077b07658,dwp_uuid=ebe33f66-57aa-11dc-8c65-0000779fd2ac,print=yes.html
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hFI1cTnkkuyN9cYrDUALoEEJzBKwD8VGNHRG0

Archivos Y Dictaduras: Actualidad Y Perspectivas - Buenos Aires, Argentina
(October 2007)

On October 1st and 2nd 2007, Memoria Abierta organized the workshop "Archivos y Dictaduras: Actualidad y Perspectivas" ("Archives and Dictatorships: Contemporary Times and Perspectives") in Buenos Aires. Participants dealt with the need to protect and open greater access to human rights documentary heritage and exchanged experiences about the management and accessibility of documents related to human rights violations. Antonio González Quintana, Spanish philosopher and archivist; Roberto Pittaluga, historian and founder member of the CeDInCI (Centro de Documentación e Investigación de la Cultura de Izquierdas en Argentina - Centre for Documentation and Research of Cultural Left in Argentina) and Mariana Nazar, historian and archivist from the Argentinean National General Archive, led the opening panel followed by a cocktail gathering at the Chancellor's House.

The Argentinean Human Rights Documentary Heritage is now part of the UNESCO Memory of the World Program. This workshop was a space to reflect not only on how to preserve human rights archives, but also on determining their accessibility according to rational and well-funded criteria. Several archives and non-governmental public organizations from Buenos Aires, Chubut, Santa Fe, Chaco, Mendoza, Jujuy, Tucumán, Chile and Paraguay attended.

2nd Annual Youth Camp At Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram - Ahmedabad, India
(January 2008)
 
"It pushed the boundaries of our own ideas of tolerance," said a participant in the second annual youth camp hosted by the Liberation War Museum and the Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram. From January 30 - February 4 2008, 25 representatives from seven countries including Pakistan, India, Nepal and Cambodia gathered at the Sabarmati Ashram for a youth camp on Peace and Democracy. The Sabarmati Ashram - a site which served as Gandhi's home on his return from South Africa and which has remained a significant marker of events related to India's struggle for independence, served as an ideal space for the youth - and the youthful - to reflect on peace, tolerance and democracy and their meaning today.

Participants engaged in a series of lectures, workshops and visits to heritage sites and social institutions - all of which brought together the themes of religion, peace and democracy framed within broader Gandhian principles around non-violence and tolerance. Through interactive workshops to encourage dialogue and communication, participants grappled with very real questions around development and violence and the relevance of Gandhian principles of tolerance and non-violence in the world and their communities today. Bringing together participants from diverse countries, with diverse religious contexts, and in different stages of political and social development to share and debate the challenges that they face is in itself an achievement. Additionally, the camp also provided a platform for participants to develop their own ideas for dialogue projects that they could implement on return to their home countries thereby contributing to the ongoing processes of social transformation and democracy building.

Development Of Museo De La Memoria - New York, USA
(January 2008)
 
President Michele Bachelet is launching a national Museo de la Memoria (Museum of Memory) to remember the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile and the victims of state terrorism. The Museum will house exhibits, archives, and office and meeting space for human rights groups. Between January 7th and 11th 2008, the Coalition Secretariat organized visits with relevant museum directors and designers in New York and Washington for Marcia Scantlebury, current director of the Museum of Memory project. Scantlebury was a journalist during the Pinochet era who was tortured and detained at Villa Grimaldi, a Coalition member site, for her criticism of Pinochet. Her husband was abducted and murdered for the same crime. She went on to lead a major victims' group and fight for those who committed crimes of state terrorism under the dictatorship to be held accountable.

The exchanges in New York and Washington, D.C. offered a variety of models for confronting painful histories; building collaborations with stakeholder groups who may have conflicting views; honoring victims while making their stories relevant for future generations; designing a museum space that will foster dialogue on contemporary issues; and other questions the Museum project is facing.

Staff Exchange: Peace School Foundation Of Monte Sole (Italy) Visits Constitution Hill (South Africa)
(February 2008)
 
As a part of its commitment to promoting reciprocal learning between Sites of Conscience, the Coalition facilitated a staff exchange between the Peace School Foundation of Monte Sole and Constitution Hill from February 18 - 21, 2008.

Constitution Hill is the site of Johannesburg's notorious Old Fort Prison Complex, commonly known as Number Four, where thousands of ordinary people were brutally punished before the dawn of democracy in 1994. Today this heritage site remembering the abuses under Apartheid is the new home of the Constitutional Court, the protector of basic rights and freedoms for the citizens of South Africa. By developing public programs and exhibitions that bring the site to life and enabling everyday people to connect with the activities of the Constitutional Court, Constitution Hill is creating a space for new engagement in the enactment of the country's constitution.

Between September 29 and October 5, 1944, 770 people in the area of the Monte Sole hills were killed by Nazi SS troops with the help of local Fascist elements. The zone was almost completely destroyed. Today the land is preserved as a natural and historical park, scattered with ruins of the former villages. The Peace School uses the site as a basis for education programs and summer youth camps that examine the context that made that system of terror possible, both in Monte Sole and in other places. Engaging young people in dialogue, non-violent transformation of conflicts, respect for human rights and peaceful coexistence among different people and cultures, Monte Sole Peace School offers new perspective and engagement in the development of the proposed European constitution.

Relating to the specific contexts of the two sites, the exchange focused on strategies for developing dialogue programs that inspire active citizenship and popular participation in supporting a human rights based Constitution.The exchange included site visits to several South African museums remembering apartheid struggles; observation of dialogue programs; and seminars and workshops with specialists in the fields of memory, heritage and human rights. Some of the questions debated at the exchange were:

• What does active citizenship mean?
• How can sites that remember past struggles for democracy inspire new involvement in shaping democracy today?
• How do different sites define dialogue, and does dialogue support active citizenship?

The exchange provided a platform for both Constitution Hill and Monte Sole to grapple with these questions as well as gain a more in-depth understanding of pedagogical methodologies for Sites of Conscience to increase public dialogue and engagement.

COMING UP:

History Behind Glass: Coalition Delegation To Healing Through Remembering Conference - Belfast, Northern Ireland
(April 2008)
 
On April 3rd and 4th, representatives of Memoria Abierta in Argentina and the Hector Pieterson Memorial in South Africa will present their experiences with memorialization at History Behind Glass: a debate about a Living Memorial Museum for the conflict in and about Northern Ireland. The conference is organized and hosted by Healing Through Remembering, an extensive cross-community project of members holding different political perspectives on the conflict in Northern Ireland. They have come together over the last five years to focus on the issue of how to deal with the past relating to the conflict in and about Northern Ireland.

Coalition members will provide international perspective on the role memorialization has played in post-conflict societies; how museums and sites of memory can serve as "Sites of Conscience"; and issues such as whether there is a "right time" to remember, and how to develop inclusive exhibits in post-conflict contexts. Coalition members will also meet with a range of civic leaders concerned with sites of memory in Northern Ireland, and visit a variety of sites representing the experiences of diverse communities. The exchange will open new conversation and learning between sites and memory activists in Northern Ireland and the international Sites of Conscience movement, and will identify future opportunities for collaboration.

International Sites Of Conscience Summit (June 15- 20, 2008) - Monte Sole, Italy
(June 2008)
 
The International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience and the Peace School Foundation of Monte Sole will host an international summit of Sites of Conscience leaders from around the world from June 15-20, 2008 in Monte Sole, Italy. Coming to Italy from Argentina, Bangladesh, Chile, Czech Republic, Russia, Senegal, South Africa, U.K., U.S., and elsewhere, the group will work together to develop a set of principles and approaches to guide and support new Sites of Conscience program development and evaluation.

The Peace School Foundation of Monte Sole is located at the site of a massacre of 770 village residents by Nazi SS troops with the help of Fascist elements in 1944. Today the land is preserved as a natural and historical park, scattered with ruins of the former village. The School's youth programs engage students in the history of what happened at the site and use a series of methods - including role plays, facilitated dialogues, and artistic expression - to investigate identity, non-violent approaches to conflict resolution, and youth activism promoting reconciliation. Summit participants will observe and evaluate Monte Sole's programs, present their own program designs for discussion and critique by their peers, and work together to address common challenges.

On June 19-20, the Coalition and Monte Sole are hosting a special workshop for representatives of sites of memory from throughout Europe to join international participants to identify a set of common challenges and opportunities for Sites of Conscience in Europe, and to define and launch a European Sites of Conscience project.

Whose America? Who's American?: Diversity, Civil Liberties, And Social Justice - Japanese American National Museum Conference - Colorado, USA
(July 2008)
 
The Japanese American National Museum (JANM) will hold a national conference around the theme of Whose America? Who's American?: Diversity, Civil Liberties and Social Justice from July 3-6, 2008 in Denver, Colorado. The conference commemorates the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 -- the United States federal law that granted reparations to Japanese Americans who had been interned by the United States government during World War II. JANM'S national conference will examine connections between the World War II Japanese American experience and historical and contemporary issues surrounding democracy and civil rights. The conference will feature sessions devoted to the history of the redress movement, host panels of individuals involved in the successful campaign and address broader issues related to redress looking at stories from Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Utah.

At the conference, Coalition Secretariat Program Director Erika Gee will present a workshop titled Passing It Forward: Strategies for Connecting History and Contemporary Issues in your Community. This session will introduce participants to practical tools for facilitating dialogue among diverse publics about historical and contemporary issues that their communities identify. Drawing on models from the Coalition's international network, the workshop will also addresses practical issues of implementing dialogue programs at historic sites and community spaces, with a special emphasis on the legacy of the Japanese American internment camp sites.

Carter Conversations - Heralding Freedom: The Gulag, American Civil Rights Movement, And Human Rights Today - Atlanta, USA
(December 2007)
 

On December 12, 2007, Coalition board member Sergei Kovalyev; former U.S. President Jimmy Carter; U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young; Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA; and Isaac Newton Farris Jr., nephew of the late Martin Luther King Jr., and president and CEO of The King Center in Atlanta discussed the suppression of political and religious dissidents in the former Soviet Union and the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. The event coincided with Human Rights Day and the opening of the traveling exhibit "GULAG: Soviet Forced Labor Camps and the Struggle for Freedom" at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic site. The Coalition organized Mr. Kovalyev's visit to Atlanta for this purpose. Drawing an audience of about 400, the event was covered by C- SPAN, Atlanta Interfaith, Broadcasters, Associated Press, WABE FM, Georgia Public Broadcasting, Ebony magazine and ABC News radio. The event is archived on the Carter Center's website at: http://www.cartercenter.org/involved/conversations/index.html

Coalition Members Meet With Italian President - Rome, Italy
(March 2008)
 
On March 6th, Chairman of the Board of the Monte Sole Peace School and European MP Vittorio Prodi and Coalition representatives Jan Munk and Liz Sevcenko met with President Giorgio Napolitano of Italy, before an audience including the Vice Minister of Education and the President of the Emilia-Romagna region. The meeting was to discuss how Sites of Conscience can support political leaders' work to address current social issues in Italy and Europe; advocate for support of the Monte Sole Peace School and its innovative active citizenship programs; and invite the President to the Coalition's upcoming international summit at the Peace School in June. The President commended the work of the Peace School and expressed support for Sites of Conscience and the Coalition, saying, "The definition of sites of conscience… is something very strong. It is very important to promote the conviction that it is not only about helping young people understand the difficult events of the past, but to elicit from this memory lessons for confronting the issues of today… to confront, for example, the issue of immigration, of multiculturalism, which exists today in so many parts of the world." The President agreed to address the Coalition's international summit at the Monte Sole Peace School in June.

The meeting was highlighted on the home page of the President's website and gained positive media attention, thus bringing the role of Sites of Conscience in promoting citizen engagement back in the public eye.

In addition to the meeting with the President, the Peace School organized a round-table with Coalition members and Vasco Errani, President of the Emilia-Romagna region; Vittorio Prodi, President of the Monte Sole Peace School Foundation; Mariangela Bastico, Vice Minister of Education; Andrea Marcucci, Vice Minister of Culture and several other high-profile individuals to discuss how dialogue programs like the Peace School's "Peace in Four Voices" engage young people in the important contemporary democratic questions facing Europe and the rest of the world. The round-table was moderated by journalist Vittorio Monti from the well-known newspaper, Corriere della Sera.

Coordination Of Repressive Actions In South America: A Selection Of Sources And Resources
 
To provide public access to documents about the coordination of repressive actions in South America and increase their availability and use by a wider range of people, Memoria Abierta has prepared a publication on its website (see: www.memoriaabierta.org.ar/condor/condor.pdf). This final presentation of the research is a selection of resources that allows people to access the information through a variety of search entries. The resources included in the publication are a bibliography on the subject; a reference and description of archives that contain documents about the coordination of repressive actions in South America; as well as, in some cases, a link to a database containing some original key documents chosen for their relevance, hard-to-find documents or gray literature, and multimedia materials.

www.sitesofconscience.org Now In Four Languages
 
In February 2008, a new design for the Coalition's website www.sitesofconscience.org launched in four languages - English, French, Spanish and Russian. The availability of the website in multiple languages aims to facilitate greater awareness and access to information to a wide range of audiences in different parts of the world. In addition to the new languages, external links from the website to institutional members' websites and other organizations have also been updated to reflect recent changes.

Special Public Historian Issue On Sites Of Conscience
 
Public Historian, the official journal of the National Council of Public History, published a special issue on Sites of Conscience in March. The issue focuses on the ways in which society's response to museums, memorials, and historical sites can grow from passive observation to active engagement.

Says editor Randolph Bergstrom in his introduction, "Public historians are coming to recognize that their sites can be more than important places of encountering the past. Astute practitioners are learning to use the distinct opportunity these sites afford to promote civic engagement." The issue, available through the website http://www.ucpressjournals.com/journal.asp?j=tph features the following essays from members of the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience:

• The Reconstruction of Memory at Constitution Hill (Churchill Madikida, Lauren Segal, and Clive van den Berg
• Places of Memory as a Tool for Education: The "Peace in Four Voices Summer Camps" at Monte Sole (Nadia Baiesi, Marzia Gigli, Elena Monicelli, and Roberta Pellizzoli)
• The Museum as a Democracy-Building Institution: Reflections on the Shared Journeys Program at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum (Maggie Russell-Ciardi)
• The District Six Museum: An Ordinary People's Place (Valmont Layne)
• Challenges on the Road to Memory (Maria Laura Guembe) and
• Activities of Terezín Memorial (Jan Munk).

Le Bois Du Cazier (Marcinelle, Belgium)
 
On August 8th, 1956, a fire spread through the Bois du Cazier coal mine in Marcinelle, claiming the lives of 262 men of 12 different nationalities. The disaster was the largest industrial fire of its kind in Belgian history, leaving in its wake hundreds of widows and orphans. More than half of the 262 victims were immigrants from Italy, who filled the need for laborers in Belgium's former economic heartland. The tragedy put an end to a treaty Belgium and Italy had signed in 1946 to encourage Italian workers to come to Belgium to work in the mines and led to stricter safety regulations for coal miners across the nation. Entering the Bois du Cazier complex today, visitors pass through the complex's arching gate towards three parallel sets of buildings. Two steel elevator towers used to lower workers and equipment into the mine loom behind the buildings, while the landscape above the old mine has been redeveloped into a "semi-natural park." In rooms where an old coal extraction machine once worked, visitors can experience the events on the day of the catastrophe and learn about the migration phenomenon through films, photographs and eyewitness accounts. Former changing rooms and showers now house exhibitions that recall the history and impact of the Industrial Revolution in the Walloon region. The site also includes a Glass Museum and offers forge and bronze foundry workshops. An on-site memorial at the top of the mine shaft pays homage to the victims of 1956.

A visit to the Bois du Cazier encourages visitors to question the costs and benefits of industrialization and consider issues of workplace safety. It also offers visitors the opportunity to reflect on the lives and past contributions of immigrants in Belgium and the factors influencing immigration policy. For more information, please visit http://www.leboisducazier.be/.

Heart Mountain Foundation (Wyoming, USA)
 
Heart Mountain Foundation was established to memorialize and to educate the public about the significance of the historical events surrounding the tragic and illegal internment of Japanese Americans at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center near Powell, Wyoming, between 1942 and 1945. The Heart Mountain Relocation Center was a crucible for the most enduring challenges the American people face - challenges of freedom and order, of civil liberties and national security, of citizenship and exclusion, of race and suspicion, and especially of hope and resilience. Their website presents information about the activities of the foundation to preserve the site and educate the public about its history and its lessons. For more information, please visit http://www.heartmountain.us.

We welcome your feedback! To submit comments or suggestions, receive a text-only version, or update your e-mail address, please contact coalition@tenement.org
 
Matters of Conscience is supported in part by the Ford Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, National Endowment for Democracy, Open Society Institute and Samuel Rubin Foundation.