by Veronika Grueneisen
I am pleased to update you on the latest developments in PCCA, as you will see we are constantly reviewing our aims, the people we want to work with, and geographical areas. All this without losing our focus and the specificity of PCCA endeavour- to address the impact of national and international large group conflict which is experienced as insoluble.
Currently, PCCA is working towards having two conferences in 2014. This is the first time we venture to have two events in one year: The next conference in the “Nazareth” Series: “European Perpetrators and Victims – Now and Then” from August 27th to Sept. 1st , again in Kliczków / Poland. The task of this conference will be to identify conflicts and enmities within and between European countries today, and understand the ways in which they are rooted in the past, National Socialism and WW II. A new venture, expending our method to a new geographical area: “Lived Lives and Future Lives in the Shadow of Wars. Secrets and Transparencies in Norway, Germany and Elsewhere” from June 10th to 12th in Lillehammer / Norway. This conference aims at exploring the ways in which children and grandchildren of WW II have been affected by this war as well as by resistance against and collaboration with Nazi German rule, in their respective countries, by what was and what wasn’t talked about, in their respective communities.
At the same time, PCCA is negotiating the ways in which we shall contribute to the next project of PRIME, the Peace Research Institute in the Middle East, in their work with Israeli and Palestinian teachers. Some of us will take a fresh look at methodology for experiencing and reflecting on Israeli-Palestinian relationships and relatedness. Jona Rosenfeld and Veronika Grueneisen were involved in a workshop on “The impact of Social Trauma on Identity”, organised by the Psychosocial Section of the Group Analytic Society Belgrade, directed by Marina Mojovic. The papers they presented were informed by PCCA conference work expertise and dealt with aspects of their personal experience which were thought to be relevant for the Serbian “past in the present” (see Veronika’s and Jona’s papers).
Veronika Grueneisen, Chair, PCCA
October. 2013