Slovenian Award Ceremony in 2015
On 19 May 2015 a group of young history researchers from all over Slovenia gathered in the Museum of Contemporary History in Ljubljana for a very festive reason: The Award Ceremony for the prize winners of the Slovenian EUSTORY Competition 2015.
From November to April these young researchers made investigations regarding the topic »Remembering the First World War«. Not only did they search through archives and read history books. In the first instance they interviewed time-witnesses and experts, they discovered their own families' history by using the memories of their family members or went through their own families' archives, and they cooperated with their peers, sometimes even by crossing national borders.
Dr. Bojan Balkovec, Professor at University in Ljubljana, and coordinator of the EUSTORY History Competion in Slovania, opened the ceremony and congratulated the prize-winners on their achievements, discoveries and efforts. The authors of the top three research papers presented their works and afterwards Tamara Čakič, EUSTORY Alumni and editor for the History Campus, reported about her experiences with EUSTORY History Camps and presented this year's EUSTORY activities for national prize-winners.
In their competition entries the young researchers used several approaches to this year's competition topic. Some of them dealt with the influences of the war on their home towns, others with the repercussions on their families or the impact not only on the lives of soldiers but also on the often neglected victims at home: women, children and the elderly.
The paper that was awarded the first prize tried to answer the controversial question of whether Gavrilo Princip, who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife Sophie, is a hero or a criminal. A challenge that proved that even though history might deliver clear questions, its answers are often indefinite and mostly dependent on the subjective view and experience.
