Maintaining Jewish Memory in the Western Balkans

The "Center for Research and Documentation of Jewish Life in East and Central Europe” (CENTROPA) represents an international team of historians, film-makers, journalists and teachers based in Vienna, Berlin, Budapest and Washington D.C.. The aim of Centropa is to document the Jewish history of the 20^th century in central and Eastern Europe through the use of family histories, photographs and films.

In the period between the years 2000 and 2010, Centropa’s interview team gathered more than 1.200 interviews with Jewish seniors in over sixteen countries and digitalized 22.000 photographs. The interviewees were asked to tell their stories through the images on the photographs, the stories from their world in which they grew up, how they survived the Holocaust and how they attempted to build a new life for themselves and their families after the war.

The interviews were recorded, edited and translated, they are available online at www.centropa.org. Most of the stories are available in English, however there are separate Websites in German and Hungarian.   

Centropa has also produced over 40 films that are used within their educational program that is being implemented in schools all over Europe, North America, Israel and South Africa, with the goal to tell the European-Jewish history of the 20^th century in an innovative and international way. Several hundred schools from 20 countries work together with Centropa and are using their materials in their curricula.

The annual highlight of Centropa is its Summer Academy (Centropa Sommerakademie-CSA), which is attended by 90 teachers from four continents to develop international projects regarding the European-Jewish history. The academy lasts for nine days and takes place in a different country every year. The participants widen their historical knowledge by visiting historical venues, exchanges with historians, film makers, politicians, journalists, etc.