The history of twentieth-century Europe is often told through the actions of political leaders, soldiers and states. Yet for millions of children, the defining events of the century – war, displacement, totalitarianism, political repression and economic hardship – were experienced not as chapters in a history book, but as everyday reality.
What did these events look like through a child's eyes?
This is the question at the heart of A Child in the Labyrinth of 20th-Century History, a new long-term international research and education project launched by the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity (ENRS).
Spanning several years, the project will place children and young people at the centre of historical inquiry, exploring their experiences during wars, totalitarian regimes, economic crises and forced migrations across twentieth-century Europe. While its primary focus is Central and Eastern Europe, the initiative also embraces wider European and transnational perspectives, encouraging dialogue across national borders and generations.
Although the history of childhood has developed rapidly in recent decades, the experiences of children in twentieth-century Central and Eastern Europe remain comparatively underexplored. Too often, children have appeared in historical narratives merely as victims, passive witnesses or objects of state policy. A Child in the Labyrinth of 20th-Century History seeks to change this by recovering their voices, perspectives and agency, asking how successive generations of children understood and navigated a century marked by violence, upheaval and profound political change.
The project combines academic research with education and public engagement. International conferences, expert studies, scholarly publications and a growing network of researchers will form the foundation for innovative educational resources designed for teachers, students and wider audiences. Drawing on the same body of research and historical sources, the project will also develop webinars, classroom materials and public history initiatives before culminating in a travelling exhibition presenting the diverse experiences of children across twentieth-century Europe.
Rather than treating each historical period in isolation, the project explores themes that transcend individual decades: war and its aftermath, ideological indoctrination, forced migration, family separation, poverty, identity and resilience. By tracing both continuities and differences across time and place, it seeks to deepen our understanding not only of the past, but also of the societies we live in today.
The first chapter of this journey, A Child in the Divided World (2026), focuses on the experiences of children in the aftermath of the Second World War and during the Cold War.
It examines childhood under communist regimes, the ideological shaping of young generations, political repression, everyday life in socialist states, and the stories of children from divided families, migrant communities and the diaspora.
The 2026 edition opens with the international conference Actors, Witnesses or Subjects? Children in Post-war Central and Eastern Europe, 1945–1989, which will take place in Warsaw on 19–20 November 2026. The conference marks the beginning of a wider international conversation that will continue to unfold through future editions of the project, each dedicated to a different chapter of children's experiences in twentieth-century Europe.
Tomorrow, ENRS will publish the Call for Papers inviting researchers from around the world to join this conversation.
Read more about the project at enrs.eu/a-child-in-the-labyrinth-of-history