The Living History Forum (Swedish: Forum för levande historia) is a Swedish state administrative authority under the Ministry of Culture, established in 2003.
Mission, background and activities
The Living History Forum is a government agency[1] for the promotion of democracy, tolerance and human rights. The authority is mandated to strive to strengthen people's will to actively work for the equal value of all people.[2] It produces investigations and factual material, shows exhibitions for schoolchildren and the general public and conducts information activities in general.
The authority was established in 2003. The origin of the authority was the information initiative Living History initiated by Göran Persson in June 1997 . The background to this was in turn a report by the Center for Immigrant Research at Stockholm University and the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention[3] the same month. This report had concluded that 66% of Swedish young people surveyed had said they were "completely sure" that the Holocaust had taken place, 14% were "fairly sure", while 8% said they were "not at all sure" or "quite unsure".
Heléne Lööw was the agency's first superintendent, until July 2006.
The Living History Forum has an office and exhibition space at Stora Nygatan 10 in the Old Town of Stockholm , a property designed by Erik Josephson and built in 1909–1912 for Skandinaviska Banken.
2008 Crimes Against Humanity Under Communist Regimes - in English[6]
2010 The ambiguous intolerance
2011 Summary of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia submitted to the government
2011 Gypsy cultural and linguistic rights
2014 Time for tolerance
2016 Historical research on racism and xenophobia in Sweden
2017 The mechanisms of tolerance: an anthology
The report on anti-Semitism
The survey of anti-Semitism in Sweden attracted a great deal of attention. It was conducted as a survey of attitudes towards Jews and Judaism. Five percent of those surveyed between the ages of 16 and 75 expressed "strong and consistent anti-Semitic attitudes," 36 percent "a partially ambivalent attitude toward Jews," and 59 percent rejected anti-Semitic views. Prime Minister Göran Persson said he was frightened and surprised by this outcome.[7]
The report's methodology met with criticism from three professors of political science at the University of Gothenburg , including Ulf Bjereld.[8] The criticism was rejected by the report editors[9] and commented upon by other researchers.[10]
Exhibitions
2003 Borders , in collaboration with Riksutställningar
2004 Balt extradition
2005-06 The Prejudice Tour
2005-08 Sweden and the Holocaust , produced by Roy Andersson
2007-08 Anne Frank & Jag
2007-09 Plays role
2008-09 Little brother sees you , traveling exhibition
2009-10 Dinner with Pol Pot, an exhibition about ideological blinders and selective vision
2010-11 (O) human , an exhibition about racial biology and forced sterilization in Sweden . One part of two, the other part is displayed at the Ethnographic Museum .
2011-09 PK - an exhibition about intolerance
2014 We are Roma - meet the people behind the myth
2015 All people! On rights and equal value
2015 70 years since the liberation
2016 Action T4 - on human vision in Nazi Germany
2017 Stamped
2017 Propaganda - risk of influence
2017 Never again! About genocide
2017 Gulag: That grandfather did not tell
Expansion
After the parliamentary elections in 2006 , the new government expanded its mandate to include the dissemination of information about crimes committed by communist regimes.[11] The Forum for Living History has also been criticized by the Left Party, a Socialist organisation, among other things based on the idea that it is up to researchers and not state authorities to write history. In this view, the state should not be opinion-forming, but ideological debate should be conducted by parties, organizations and popular movements.[12]
The political scientist Emil Uddhammar criticized those opposing the Forum's initiatives for wanting to silence crimes against humanity committed in the name of Marxism.[13][14]
Per Anger Prize
Forum for Living History has the government's mandate to administer the Per Anger Prize. This has been awarded since 2004 to people and organizations who have excelled in helping others escape oppression and violence.
References
^"THE LIVING HISTORY FORUM". FORUM FÖR LEVANDE HISTORIA. Archived from the original on 3 February 2021. Retrieved 25 November 2021. The Living History Forum is a public agency. We work for democracy and equality between all people, using lessons learned from the Holocaust.
^Anders Lange, Heléne Lööw, Stéphane Bruchfeld och Ebba Hedlund: Utsatthet för etniskt och politiskt relaterat hot m.m., spridning av rasistisk och antirasistisk propaganda samt attityder till demokrati m.m. bland skolelever Centrum för invandringsforskning, Stockholm 1997
