International Project STAND UP

International Project STAND UP – STANDING UP FOR REMEMBRANCE: Testimonies from the Past as Lessons for the Present – Holocaust and Human Rights Education through Oral History

The National Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia is participating in the international project Standing Up for Remembrance: Testimonies from the Past as Lessons for the Present – Holocaust and Human Rights Education through Oral History (STAND UP).

The project brings together teachers and individuals from educational institutions across six partner countries (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Hungary and Serbia) with the aim of creating video excerpts and lesson plans based on testimonies from the archives of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) and from the Oral history collection of the National Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia.

The acronym “S.T.A.N.D. U.P.” represents the core message of our project, emphasizing the importance of standing up against injustice and learning from history. Each letter stands for a key aspect of the project’s mission:

S – Storytelling: Highlighting the power of testimonies.
T – Teaching: Educating about the Holocaust.
A – Awareness: Increasing awareness of the atrocities committed.
N – Never Again: Reinforcing the commitment to prevent similar atrocities.
D – Dialogue: Encouraging open discussions and conversations about the Holocaust.
U – Understanding: Promoting empathy and understanding of the Holocaust survivors’ experiences.
P – Preservation: Preserving oral history for future generations.

The central goal of the project is to collect and professionally prepare relevant materials in each participating country, which history teachers, with the mentoring support of partner institutions, then develop into high-quality curricula for use in schools. Currently, the project involves over 100 teachers from the partner countries and more than 2,000 students. Subsequently, young people from the so-called Anne Frank Youth Network will also join the project, providing peer-to-peer education on the covered topics under the principle of “students teaching students.”

The project is structured in several thematically connected modules. Initially, online seminars were held on May 27–28, 2025, laying the foundation for further work. These were followed by in-person weekend seminars for teachers in Šabac (October 10–12, 2025), Budapest (October 17–19, 2025), Ljubljana (November 21–23, 2025), and Berlin (January 23–25, 2026). Based on testimonies from World War II, participants prepared various curricula, which are already being implemented in schools across all participating countries.

In the next phase of the project, additional activities will take place, actively involving young people. As part of this, an international conference titled Anne Frank Youth Network International Forum: Standing Up for Remembrance – Youth, Dialogue & Civic Engagement in Europe will be held in Zagreb from April 23–26, 2026. During the conference, young participants will develop educational activities and implement them in their home countries under the “youth for youth” principle. The conference will bring together 40 young people from ten different countries.

The project is led by HERMES – Croatian Network for Development and Evolution of Communication. More information about the project can be found at: https://hermes.hr/standup/