Van Crossroads naar Brabant Remembers

75 Personal life changing war stories en de zoektocht naar zorgvuldigheid

Samenvatting

From Crossroads to Brabant Remembers. 75 Personal life changing war stories and the search for cautiousness

For the commemoration of 75 years of liberation of the province of North Brabant, the Crossroads 1940|1945 foundation developed a programme of activities based on 75 personal life-changing war stories. This article reflects on the selection of these stories. What were the basic principles and how did the process of selection and writing develop? How did the public engagement take shape? What choices were made and in what ways did the stories contribute to the development of the programme? The process to select and write 75 narratives according to the techniques of storytelling turned out to be an active and creative process of collection, reconstruction, contextualization, and, eventually, representation. It is an example of oral history, in which the interviewer or listener plays an active part. This is a dynamic process that demands continuous reflection to guarantee veracity, conscien- tiousness, and a sustainable use of the collected stories.