encounters

An important collection of the museum is immaterial, intangible, but very penetrating. These are the stories of specific, unique people. Many of them were known or remembered only by their families or in local communities, until they raised from these environments to the museum level. Historically researched, they can be published here as personal stories and so publically shared again.

When you log in for the first time, a world map is shown. It displays where someone was born, lived or worked before the war turned his or her life upside down. From that place in the world, you can choose who you would like to encounter in the exhibition. Children can choose from the collection of stories that have been specially adapted for them.

On your way through the exhibition, you pass four meeting kiosks. At the first one, you learn to know the person you selected yourself; further on in the museum, you find out what the war had in store for him or her.

Apart from the person you selected yourself, you also encounter someone else, someone who has experienced the same war in a different way. Yet this second person's story always has a piece of history in common with the story of your choice. It is up to you to discover that.

At the end of your visit, you can take home the two encounters you were offered in the exhibition. Quite probably (and before going home) they can lead you to a place outside the museum, somewhere in the Ypres area.

You can chose to have your personal stories sent to your personal email address, or you can get a QR link to their publication in the List of Names.