Leaving a Trace : action-research with Roma and non-Roma young people between history, memory and present

This book seeks to reflect theoretically and empirically on the process and results of an international project that lasted two and a half years (TRACER - Transformative Roma Art and Culture for European Remembrance), financed with European funds under the CERV (Citizen, Equality, Rights and Value) programme. The main protagonists are young people, mainly Roma and Sinti, living in different places and countries, with their own history that anchors them to different communities, but joined by belonging to discriminated minorities and to a transnational people who recognise themselves as a community albeit characterised by diaspora. The project's goal combines historical knowledge of the genocide that occurred during World War II with an analysis of the construction of prejudice and the role that racism has had on the collective consciousness of a modern society. The methodology used is participatory action-research in public history educational context, a process able to make the protagonists aware of a path of knowledge, promoting training actions towards other people and leaving traces of memory in the present through artistic events. The text consists of two sections: - a first section contains a more theoretical reflection on the role of memory and history in educational contexts and opens with an explanation of the project's steps and ethodological choices; this first part affirms the need to transform Auschwitz from a “monument to visit” into a tool for education and training, through a knowledge of the past that can interrogate the present; - a second, more empirical part, provides some insights into the project's actions, with a interpretation by the direct protagonists; in this second part, young people from Roma communities build their own awareness by going through the history of their own people, but in a shared context of knowledge with non-Roma young people, in order to be an active part in the construction of public memory; it is this process of collective narration that stands out as the most powerful antidote against denialism.