Sarajevo and Srebrenica - two places that embody the tragedy of ethnic cleansing during the Balkan wars of the 1990s - will be the destinations of a “Journey of Memory” for students from the Ulivi Scientific High School in Parma. The initiative is part of a long-running program funded by the Emilia-Romagna Regional Assembly, aimed at helping younger generations engage directly with key historical sites of the twentieth century.

In 2026, the Parma school will develop the project From Sarajevo to Srebrenica: A Challenge to Build a Europe of Rights, while the Centro Studi per la Stagione dei Movimenti will lead a parallel initiative titled History Is Not the Past: Perpetrators, Ordinary People and Responsibility. Both projects are supported within the broader “Journeys of Memory” framework.

Assembly President Maurizio Fabbri welcomed the initiative, noting the decision to allocate increased funding for 2026. Since 2020, nearly €3 million has been invested in the program, benefiting more than 20,000 students across the region. “Travel, observe, ask questions,” Fabbri urged students. “Knowledge will help you become better citizens.”

Paolo Trande, councillor responsible for programs on twentieth-century memory, stressed the institutional duty to keep historical awareness alive. Allowing students to experience first-hand the sites marked by the atrocities of the “Short Century,” he said, helps counter collective amnesia and equips young people with the tools needed to understand the present and think independently.