Growing up is extremely difficult – all adults remember this. Growing up during a war is twice as difficult. How do children get used to new living conditions? How do they see the war? Where do they find support for themselves and their loved ones, and what new roles do they find themselves in? How can their experience come out of the shadow of global events?
The exhibition ‘Out of Shadows’ does not offer direct answers. Instead, it provides space for reflection and personal discovery in a dialogue with those whose childhood was spent during the war. The testimonies are recorded in conversations with museum researchers in the children’s language – their words, intonations, slang, and even sign language. The collected children's testimonies are intended to help us better understand what other people have experienced and to show that the stories of wartime childhood are more than war and destruction. These are stories about love and support, courageous mothers and fathers, pets, funny situations, and beloved places. About ways to cope, ambitions and hopes for the future.
The War Childhood Museum is an international platform that documents the experiences of people whose childhoods were affected by war. The Museum collects children's stories and related personal items, which make up the museum's archive. The museum was founded in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2017. So far, the Museum has WCM collected testimonies about war childhoods during 20 armed conflicts worldwide, including Bosnia, Syria, Ukraine, and Gaza.
In Ukraine, the Museum began its research work in 2018 by documenting children’s stories from the frontline areas in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. In 2020, the Museum opened its first international office in Kyiv. The War Childhood Museum is supported by forumZFD.