IBB-Project: 25 Years After Chernobyl (PDF 494 KB)
Announcement Study Trip to Minsk (PDF 106 KB)
Please find out what the participants write about the project on Europe & Me.
Have a look at their blog here!
Please have a look at this videocontianing newspaper clippings about Chernobyl.
25 Years After Chernobyl: The Blog
"Paths towards a Culture of Transnational Remembrance"
“Radioactive clouds do not stop at the Iron Curtain” - The Blog
A Project of the Association for International Education and Exchange Dortmund (IBB) and the Mercator Foundation in cooperation with EUSTORY, Hamburg and the IBB „Johannes Rau“ Minsk
Photo: Tina Gotthardt
Between September 2010 and March 2011 EUSTORY alumni try to close some gaps in the history of the accident. On 5 September 2010 the seminar started with 60 former winners of EUSTORY history competitions from 20 European countries such as Belgium, Belarus, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Switzerland, Serbia, Slovakia , Slovenia, Spain, Czech Republic, Ukraine and Wales. In an Internet forum they studied during the recent months the response to the disaster in their own countries. This virtual classroom is part of the project "25 Years After Chernobyl. Paths towards a Culture of Transnational Remembrance" of the IBB Dortmund and the Mercator Foundation in cooperation with EUSTORY and the IBB "Johannes Rau" Minsk. The aim of the Internet seminar was to examine the effects of the Chernobyl disaster on the different regions of Europe and to pursue the question of how the disaster today, 25 years later, is remembered. The participants researched in their home countries, collected the material for a virtual exhibition and discussed their findings on an Internet platform. Thus, alarming facts came to light: especially the participants from the Baltic States, Ukraine, Russia and Belarus found out that experiences and memories of Chernobyl were neglected for many years - even in the families, for example, the memories of so-called liquidators, who were forced to work in the contaminated areas. Many of them did not survive. The survivors are struggling with serious health problems today. Parallel to their examinations, the young Europeans now make their results public in a blog. The focus of the first contribution is the difference in media coverage over the reactor accident in the national press. Based on the information policy of the Soviet government, the European public officially informed about the disaster only some days after the accident. Only gradually the scale of the disaster passed through. Striking for the young Europeans was the fact that the entire first reporting based on a communication issued by the Soviet news agency TASS, 29 April 1986. In the countries under Soviet influence the notification basically just repeated the official explanation and added that everything was under control, even though there were slight formulation differences between the countries. In the articles of the Western European press, however, there was a lack of concrete information and there was a lot of speculation found. The conclusion of the young Europeans: the Chernobyl disaster caused uncertainties in both Western and Eastern Europe, because it became evident that "radioactive clouds do not stop at the Iron Curtain". Then and now comprehensive and transparent information is essential for the sense of security the people feel. This feeling has been shaken by the information policy of 1986. Photo: Tina Gotthardt
Have a look at this video contianing newspaper clippings about Chernobyl.
