This presentation provides insights into a didactic-methodical new conception and expansion of a digital pedagogy of remembrance in the field of tension between historical exploration, digital mediation and international transformation of remembrance culture. We will focus on three aspects: 

As first: Contemporary prospects and challenges in the field of memory work concerning National Socialism and Holocaust in education from a theoretical point of view. As soon as the topic of National Socialism is linked to migration, there is often a juxtaposition of two groups: pupils with and without a migration background. This inevitably constructs two homogeneous groups that are assumed to have a uniform approach to history. However, dealing with racism and anti-Semitism in educational work requires overcoming homogenization and dichotomous world views. Contemporary historical-political education should show the extent to which descent-related categories and the non-recognition of multiple affiliations have an exclusionary effect (cf. Messerschmidt 2015: 269ff.).  In school education, by dealing with the events of National Socialism and the Holocaust as a history of systematic exclusion, identity markers from the outside become obsolete and multiple affiliations are allowed. Belongings can be conveyed not least through historical memory, as Viola Georgi has shown in her studies on how young people with a migration background deal with National Socialism: Identification with the history of the majority society can offer migrants opportunities for belonging. In this way, dealing with National Socialism as a field of negotiation for recognition and belonging can take on a positive function with regard to inclusion (cf. Georgi 2003: 185ff.). 

As second, we will introduce one certain approach to current challenges in memory work, based on a project we are currently working on: Learning modules are being developed for an Austria-wide digital "remembrance map" of all places with signs of remembrance for victims of the Nazis, which include considerations of how learning from the past and learning about the past is possible in the migration society. This modern approach shall address young pupils as well as their teachers with its multimedia approach, combining the digital world with excursions and educational tasks in the “real world”.

As third, we introduce an international scientifical project including also teachers and pupils in the Alps-Adriatic region, to which our region belongs. The project aims to foster a more inclusive remembrance culture between Austria, Italy and Slovenia. The perception of one's own history has an important significance for one's self-image and relations with neighbours, especially in the Alps-Adriatic region in which the past century was a very conflictual past. However, unquestioned nationalist narratives still exist not only in Carinthia (Austrian), but also in Slovenia and Friuli-Venezia Giulia (Italy). In the past, these ideas, which perceive the respective "others" as a threat, have repeatedly reinforced each other. The project wants to counteract this by developing common, multi-perspective materials for school lessons. Teachers (primarily, but not exclusively historians), students, didacticians, historians and cultural scientists from the three countries Italy, Austria and Slovenia are actively involved.

In our presentation, all three prospects will be linked together at last, as a contribution to a contemporary memory culture usable for education, in which national, juxtaposing perspectives and narratives are used to develop empathy for the point of view of the "others" and in which trust and insight can grow.

At the moment, a digital and geo-referenced "remembrance map" is being created in Austria, in which all places with manifest signs of remembrance are entered, where persecution and resistance under National Socialism are commemorated. The aim is to record these places completely. The digital map offers not only historical information but also concrete mediation concepts for different target groups, such as pupils and students. The map aims to stimulate conversation about the past in a society shaped by migration and diversity using the tools and methods of oral history, pedagogy and educational research, subject didactics, digital humanities and historical studies. The project combines a historical-scientific interest with a pedagogical one, an innovative digital memorial landscape of persecution and resistance under National Socialism is being created. The didactic-pedagogical mediation and presentation concept developed by a multidisciplinary team of several Austrian universities and institutions pursues the goal of a fundamental didactic-methodical new conception and expansion of digital memory pedagogy in the area of tension between historical exploration and digital mediation. From an international perspective, not only in Austria, but also in Slovenia and Italy, there are still unquestioned nationalist narratives of how history is viewed. In the past, these nationalist narratives have repeatedly reinforced each other. One nationalism is deriving its own right to exist from the perceived "threat" posed by the other nationalism. A sustainable treatment of the still existing (historical) conflict lines in the Alps-Adriatic region therefore requires a cross-border approach. The approach of "dialogical remembering" (Assmann 2020; Brousek/Grafenauer/Wintersteiner/Wutti 2020) seems particularly suitable for this. A prosperous development between the ethnic groups in the region can thus most certainly be expected in the context of a prosperous transnational development (Wintersteiner/Beretta/Miladinović-Zalaznik 2020). Cross-border remembering and the thematization of cross-border and inclusive narratives in school lessons are an important way to achieve this (cf. Wutti/Danglmaier/Hartmann 2020). Teachers, students, history didacticians, historians and representatives of civil society organizations collect and review existing material, especially curricula and school history books to determine a status quo of what is currently thought in schools about the mutual history. Nationalistic and exclusive viewpoints, as well as “good practice” is examined. In several international working groups and school tandems, the material will be compared, in order to develop more inclusive possibilities of teaching the mutual history of Austria, Italy and Slovenia.

All three prospects introduced in our presentation, point in a certain direction concerning their broader societal impact: It is necessary to make young people and civil society in the Alps-Adriatic region more aware of the fact that their regions were part of a common, multilingual cultural and economic area for many centuries through an educational offensive. In a post-nationalistic common regional history of the Alps-Adriatic region, a critical analysis of historical sources is encouraged and thus one's own understanding of history is challenged. Conflicts are by no means left out, but on the contrary, different perspectives and narratives are juxtaposed. Different narratives can and should coexist without having to relativize each other. By dialogically relating the partially contradictory narratives on an international level, the different viewpoints are not relativized but "related", which means learning to understand that the conflicting perspectives are in a sense mutually dependent, such as mutually reinforcing nationalisms (cf. Brousek 2018: 97ff.). Besides working internationally, also on a national level still work has to be done. E.g. in Austria, where a complete and easily accessible overview of all places with signs of remembrance for Nazi victims yet is not present. Therefore, a digital "remembrance map" will be introduced soon, and it will also offer new didactic-methodical conceptions for teachers – concrete guidelines, good practice examples and contemporary didactic materials. Yet, our presentation will offer considerations of how learning from the past and learning about the past is possible in the contemporary migration society, which leads us back to neccicities for considering education in a changing world.

Assmann, Aleida (2020): Der europäische Traum. Vier Lehren aus der Geschichte. München: C. H. Beck, 5. Aufl. Brousek, Jan (2018): The Concept of Peace Region as Alternative to (Traditional) Political Autonomy – Experiences from the Project “Building the Peace-Region Alps-Adriatic” In: Treatises and Documents - Journal for Ethnic Studies, No. 81, December 2018., 87-104. Brousek, Jan / Grafenauer, Danijel / Wutti, Daniel / Wintersteiner, Werner (Hg.) (2020): Slovenija – Österreich. Befreiendes Erinnern – Osvobajajoče spominjanje. Dialoško obravnavanje zgodovine – Dialogische Aufarbeitung der Vergangenheit. (Zweisprachiges, deutsch-slowenisches Buchprojekt) Klagenfurt/Celovec: Drava. Georgi, Viola (2003): Zwischen Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft. Jugendliche aus Einwandererfamilien und die Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus. In: Jahrbuch Pädagogik. Erinnern – Bildung – Identität. Berlin: Peter Lang, 185-205. Lowe, Keith (2014): Der wilde Kontinent. Europa in den Jahren der Anarchie 1943-1950. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta. Messerschmidt, Astrid (2015): Selbstkritisches Erinnern – Vergegenwärtigung der NS-Verbrechen in der Migrationsgesellschaft. In: Leiprecht, R./ Steinbach, A.: Schule in der Migrationsgesellschaft. Ein Handbuch. Band 2. Schwalbach/Ts.: Debus Pädagogik, 269-286. Wintersteiner, Werner / Beretta, Christina / Miladinović-Zalaznik, Mira (2020): Manifesto Alpe-Adria. Stimmen für eine Europa-Region des Friedens und Wohlstands. Wien: Löcker. Wutti, Daniel / Danglmaier, Nadja, / Hartmann, Eva (2020): Erinnerungskulturen im Grenzraum – Spominske kulture na obmejnem območju. Klagenfurt/Celovec: Hermagoras/Mohorjeva.