Digital platform “Wer ist Walter? 100 stories about resistance in Europe during World War II”
The digital platform “Wer ist Walter?” gathers 100 stories about resistance against Nazism, fascism, occupation and collaboration in Europe during World War II. The focus is on 4 countries that represent different regions and historical and political contexts within Europe: France as occupied and collaborating country in western Europe, Germany as the country that attacked and occupied most of Europe, within which resistance activities also developed, and Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia in southeastern Europe, as parts of the Yugoslav space and more specifically of the collaborating Independent State of Croatia between 1941 and 1945. The focus on the Yugoslav space is especially important to us, because the resistance was here particularly strong and because the (post-)Yugoslav space is often forgotten or neglected in discussions about European history and memories.
With the selected 100 stories, we do not pretend to cover everything but we want to offer a kaleidoscope illustrating different resistance activities (from armed resistance to non-violent actions), which involved different groups and social categories (for example young people, women, …) and took place in various spaces (cities, forests and mountains, camps,…) and which have been remembered in different ways after the war. The title “Wer ist Walter?” refers to one of the leaders of the antifascist resistance in Sarajevo during World War II: Vladimir Peric, whose pseudonym “Walter” is known by everybody in Sarajevo, but who is widely ignored in most other parts of Europe. And even in Sarajevo, not many know much about the historical figure behind the name. With this platform, we hope to deepen the knowledge about resistance in our own and in other European countries, and to stimulate curiosity and reflection.
To facilitate the understanding of the stories, the platform includes basic information about occupation and resistance in Europe in general, and more specifically in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, France and Germany, as well as a glossary with key terms related to this topic.
You can find ideas how to deal with the platform and the stories in an educational setting here.
This digital platform was developed in the frame of the international research project “Wer ist Walter? Resistance against Nazism in Europe”, realised between August 2022 and July 2024 by crossborder factory, History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Centre International de Formation Européenne (CIFE), and Jasenovac Memorial Site, with the support of the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ) and the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) as part of the Education Agenda NS-Injustice.
The project involved the organisation of several workshops and conferences in Sarajevo, Zagreb, Jasenovac, Nice, and Berlin, in cooperation with a group of 12 researchers and curators working in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, France and Germany. You can find more information about the project here.
Besides this platform, the project resulted in:
- the scientific publication “Wer ist Walter? International perspectives on resistance in Europe during World War II” which you can download here
- the exhibition “Wer ist Walter? Topography of antifascist resistance in Bosnia and Herzegovina 1941-1945” which you can visit at the History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo.