Subprojects

Memories of Romany Women

- a project founded in the framework of the Museum of Roman Culture in Brno in 2001 under the supervision of Prague Gender Studies, o.p.s. The project included realization of 10 interviews, photographic exhibition run in the Brno museum and publication of a Czech-English book entitled Paměti romských žen, Kořeny I - Memories of Romany Women, The Roots presenting six interviews with Roma women of different generations.

Memory of Women - Victims of Holocaust

- a project realized by Gender Studies, o.p.s. in the period June 2002 - April 2003 with the support of Foundation for Victims of Holocaust (NFOH - Nadační fond obětem holocaustu).
The project's aim was to develop a series of biographical interviews with women - victims of holocaust, their daughters and/or granddaughters; six women took part in the project. It followed the long-term international project Women's Memories that looks for definition of women's identity under the Socialist period in the Czech history. We were interested in how these women, having experienced holocaust, lived their lives after the World War II, and how far other generations of women in their families perceived it or how they were influenced by this experience.

Literature published in foreign countries underlines the fact that the holocaust experience is not concluded within one generation that lived it and survived it but it lives further on in the family conscience. It influences other generations who may or may not be aware of its impact. The project Memory of Women - Victims of Holocaust is one of the few in the Czech social environment that closely focuses on the life of victims of holocaust after the war. Moreover, it is - as we were informed - the only project that works with the second generation of victims. (Projects of the Jewish Museum and the Institute for Contemporary History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic target mainly the war period.) During the project, we gathered 30 two-generational, resp. three-generational, interviews with women born between the years of 1913 and 1989. The respondents focused on the reflection of holocaust, identity, and daily life after the World War II; they also reviewed the issue of perception of women's roles in the then society. The interviews form original and individual testimonies of women of two (three) generations in one family, and at the same time, they have several features in common. Almost all respondents of the first generation point out the fact that they come from assimilated families where Jewry was mainly understood in its cultural context, while the religious context was less important. They develop this issue mentioning that both Jewish and Christian holidays were followed in their families. Interviews with women born in the thirties depict the "phenomenon of happy childhood" that was concluded by the deportation to Terezín. Most of the interviews also report "cutting off" the past straightforwardly after the return from concentration camps. All of them tried very hard to forget the past, overcome the grief and mourning for the deceased close relatives, along with the feeling of loneliness, and get actively involved in the everyday post-war life. The forms of "cutting-off" were varied: marriage, raising children, studies, employment or everything at once. Women of the second generation (so-called second generation of victims) reflect - with a few exceptions - their parents not mentioning holocaust and themselves not being able to question it. They felt subconsciously that their parents wanted to forget about the past times and were worried that questioning them about the past would have hurt them. Thus, a number of unexplained and not discussed issues appeared that were difficult for the second generation to understand. They often define these as components of their identity troubles. Their search for identity was marked not only by their parents' silence but also by the phenomenon of "missing graves", i.e. inexistence of grandparents. The continuity of generational development was violently broken which constituted trauma for women of the second generation to fight with all along their lives. These women are much more aware of traditional stereotypes in thinking regarding Jews; it may be parallel to their difficulties in searching for identity and return to their roots. Each of the destinies narrated is unique for having been lived by a concrete woman. However, they all share a variety of common features underlying the holocaust experience. Still, it is reflected in different ways that make the whole generational story original and unrepeatable. In the context of the "official" and "disregarded" history, these interviews are represented in the second one: concrete and individual living of everyday processes - all within "the history". It is an opportunity that cannot be repeated as the length of human life limits it. The project is specifically important for covering testimonies of women on their lives after the war that were marked by holocaust experience, either personal or transferred as a family burden. It must be researched, written about and discussed as only a few people carry the experience.

Danubian Basin German Women

- a project realized by the Yugoslav team that interviewed women of German origin born between 1921-1938 in Yugoslavia, especially in Vojvodina. The post-war destiny of Danubian Basin Germans who came to Vojvodina under the reign of Marie Theresa was a taboo for dozens of years. Undoubtedly, a number of these Germans were members of German army that occupied Yugoslavia and fought with Tito's national army of liberation. Some of them also became members of the ill-fated SS units. However, after the war, all Germans in the area, including women and children, were blamed for guilt of a group of individuals. Their property was confiscated, they were sent to several detention camps where they were ill-treated and lived in hard conditions. This harm lasted for a certain period, however, the German minority has not been fully respected ever since, e.g. they were not allowed to use their language. A large group moved later on back to Germany, nevertheless, lots of women stayed and married Serbians, Croatians, Hungarians or members of other minorities, including Czechs. The Yugoslav team led by Nadežda Ćetković-Radović opened this issue to public debate in two publications, radio dramatization of one interview, and realization of CD-Rom.

GEBIGE

- an acronym of German title (in English translation: "Gender Relations in the Mirror of Biographical Presentation and Social Development") of a two-year-long project supported by the European Union within Socrates-Grundtvig program. The project intends to outline new approaches to gender and interactive educational processes on the basis of the variety of biographical material collected over years within the Women's Memories project. Three teams have been involved in the project: Gender Studies, o.p.s., OWEN Berlin and Gender Studies Centre in Bratislava.

EFID

- Europäische Frauen im Dialog über Biografien, Erinnerung und Geschichte (European Women in Dialogue about Biographies, Memories and History), a project realized by the German, Czech and Slovak teams in the period between 2004 – 2006, as a part of the EU Socrates-Grundtvig 1 Program. The outcome of the project was the elaboration of the curricula in gender biography education based on the Women’s Memory project materials and the offer for their inclusion into the European system of adult education.