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Brief information on the field research carried out by all six members of the team in Dresden, Warsaw and St. Petersburg. 10^th-30^th of July, 2007

Zuzanna Bogumił, Tim Buchen, Christian Ganzer, Anna Lubivaya, Maria Senina, Joanna Wawrzyniak

Dresden - from 11th to 15^th of July 2007

We visited several exhibitions and museums which show the bombardment of Dresden. Among them Gedenkstätte Münchner Platz and Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr, where we had a meeting with Mr Wehner, the museum's historian, and were shown a project of the museum's new exposition. For further analysis we chose the Stadtmuseum Dresden http://stadtmuseum.dresden.de and consulted Ronald Schwarz, who is the curator of the museum's exposition, opened in 2004.

During our field research we had also a meeting with Daniel, an anti-fascist activist and a filmmaker, who showed us his documentary on official ceremonies of the Dresden bombardment's anniversary in 2004.

Warsaw - from 16^th to 22^nd of July 2007

We visited the Museum of Polish Army, the Warsaw Rising Museum and the Historical Museum of Warsaw. We had several meetings, among them with professor Dariusz Gawin, a deputy director of the Warsaw Rising Museum, Joanna Maldis, the curator of the exhibition in the Historical Museum of Warsaw and Maciej Mikulski, one of the exhibition's designers. For further analysis we chose the Historical Museum of Warsaw http://www.mhw.pl. The exhibition was opened in the late fifties of the last century and is being modernized at the moment.

St. Petersburg - from 23^rd to 30^th of July 2007

We were in the Museum of Political History of Russia, the Monument of Heroes of Leningrad, the State Memorial Museum of Defense and the Siege of Leningrad and the State Museum of the History of Saint Petersburg. For further analysis we chose the exhibition at The State Museum of the History of Saint-Petersburg http://www.spbmuseum.ru, opened in 1964.

Apart from consultations with museums' employees we met Tatiana Woronina of the European University in St. Petersburg, who presented us the oral history project on "Siege of Leningrad". The Memorial Foundation in St. Petersburg hosted our workshop, at which we summed up our field research.

Pictures

Dresden City Museum. Overview of the first part of the exhibition "Democracies and Dictatorships". In the forefront, the "golden twenties" with the examples of modern architecture, new technologies and mass consumption, further in the room - the Nazi era.

Dresden City Museum. Part of the exhibition on the Nazi period. In the foreground: the Christmas tree decorations with swastika and an SA cap. There are also items documenting the plight of the prisoners and the activities of the anti-Nazi resistance. A fragment of a bomb dropped by the Allies dominates this part of exhibition. On the right wall the chronology of the anti-Semitic measures from 1933 to 1945.

Dresden City Museum. The chronology of anti-Semitic measures is illustrated by exhibits like this newspaper, stating that Jews are no longer allowed to visit the "Hirsch" restaurant. The curators decided not to let the Nazi eagle dominate the exhibition, therefore it is hidden behind the wall. The eagle divides the room in two parts: Weimar Republic on the right and the Nazi period on the left side.

The Historical Museum of Warsaw. The beginning of WWII in Warsaw. The pictures show the fate of city's inhabitants in September 1939. In the background, under a city map, the pieces of destroyed architectural ornaments. The room will be modernized in the nearest future.

The Historical Museum of Warsaw. The recently reconstructed room on the Polish resistance and the Warsaw ghetto. Each of the columns shown at the picture is dedicated to a certain resistance group or a certain action. On the background wall: examples of German propaganda and persecution, such as official announcements of harsh punishment of Poles.

The Historical Museum of Warsaw. The room on the destruction of Warsaw after the suppressing of the Warsaw Rising in 1944. In the center of the dark room lies a map of the city with little lamps that mark no concrete places but symbolize candles on a cemetery. One hears the funeral music in the room.

The State Museum of the History of Saint Petersburg. The entrance to a room dedicated to the beginning of the German-Soviet war 1941-1945. An artist painted the German military plans of conquering the Soviet Union on an original fragment of a German plane which had been shot down by the Red Army. On the left side of the door: a recruiting office; on the right - two German uniforms (Wehrmacht and SS).

The State Museum of the History of Saint Petersburg. Despite of German shelling and bombing, hunger and low temperatures were the main enemies of Leningraders. On the picture two symbols: in the center the installation showing food rationing - daily portion of 125-gram bread; on the left side a figure of Tanya - a girl whose whole family died of hunger.

The State Museum of the History of Saint Petersburg. This room is dedicated to the breaking through the German blockade in January 1944. The large painting on the back wall shows cheering Soviet soldiers directly after the breakthrough, surrounded by dead bodies in Wehrmacht uniforms.