One of the Institute’s annual noteworthy activities is the hosting of a Summer School with a program that focuses on the fateful consequences of the Nazi and Communist regimes during and after the Second World War. The overall context is to address why it is important to learn and teach history and to exchange experiences and ideas on how to reconcile sensitive historical subjects.
The Institute’s Summer School was held again this past summer after a one year hiatus due to the Covid pandemic. The Summer School has been organized as 2 separate full week events, with the first week geared towards historians, researchers, teachers of history and other professionals interested in recent history. The second week is geared towards high school and university students who may be studying history or other related socio-political streams. The programs are all in English and involve lectures, review of film documentaries, museum tours, panel discussions and several excursions to historical sites that are critically relevant to the unjust actions of the Nazi and Communist regimes.
Since 2018 the Institute’s Summer School programs have been organized and lead by Ms. Eli Pilve , a Researcher and Project Manager at the Institute. In addition to her work at the Institute, Ms. Pilve is completing her Ph.D thesis on the theme of “The Political Purge of teachers in the Estonian SSR between 1940–1953”.
The main lecturer at the summer schools for many years has been Mr. Indrek Tarand who is a well-known historian and former EU Parliamentarian.
Photos of a couple of the School sessions are shown below:
Since 2018, the course costs, accommodations and meals for the Summer School events have been completely paid for by a generous foundation from the Embassy of Germany. Attendees only have to pay for travel costs to Tallinn, Estonia. The annual Summer School makes for an excellent opportunity to visit Estonia and supplement the travel with a meaningful learning experience. The attendees have generally been from European nations but there have also been a few from North America and other regions as well. The graduates forge lasting friendships and take away a shared inspiration of studying history and of valuing justice and democracy. Additional information about the Summer School can be found on line : https://mnemosyne.ee/en/estonian-institute-of-historical-memorys-summer-school/. The Institute is very interested in attracting more attendees from Canada and the U.S.A.
Toomas Eichenbaum
