Lechovo is a village in Westmakedonia, which was completely destroyed by Nazi forces during WWII. Many places have had a similar fate in Greece, especially for showing resistance and participating in partisan warfare against the Nazi occupation. These places, including larger cities like Thessaloniki (where over 30.000 Jews had been deported from), and villages where all male citizens were murdered, are called martyr places or martyr villages.
We believe that it is important for martyr communities to open up and to discuss their trauma, especially together with civil society actors from Greece and Germany and also approach this issue from a historic and a pedagogic point of view. This includes scientists, youth trainers and civil society members.
This project is important to the Greek and German communities, because a dialogue, as we plan it, may contribute to the softening of the countries’ relations. Instead of tackling high politics, we want a grass root project that aims at education and reconciliation, by discussing the traumatic era of WWII to inform and to warn the young and old in Greece, Germany and Europe regarding nationalism and fascism. This pilot project lasts three days. After a successful conference we will be holding it each year until we manage to develop and establish a summer academy regarding WWII and its teaching in Greece and Germany.