The Athens War Museum will host an international conference on Monday, 19 October, bringing together museums and military heritage organisations from five European countries to examine how different nations interpret, present and preserve the history of the Second World War.
Titled Second World War: One War, Different Perspectives, the conference is organised by the Athens War Museum in collaboration with the Imperial War Museums in the United Kingdom and the Polish Army Museum in Poland.
The event aims to establish an international forum for dialogue between museums and military cultural heritage organisations, focusing on contemporary interpretations of the war through different national and social perspectives.
Representatives from major museums and institutions in Greece, the United Kingdom, Poland, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands will participate in the conference.
Discussions will examine how societies interpret the war, preserve its legacy and present its history through museum exhibitions. Topics will include the interpretation of wartime events, national resistance movements and their place in local historical narratives, significant developments across different theatres of war, and the relationship between history and collective memory.
Participants will also explore competing historical narratives in museum displays, approaches to recounting the war through national perspectives and personal accounts, and the use of film and photography as tools for historical documentation.
Exhibitions and archival material
Alongside the conference, the Athens War Museum will host three exhibitions.
These will feature material from the Georgios Levithopoulos Archive of Greek Letters, a photographic exhibition drawn from the Byron Mitou Collection, and photographic archival material supplied by the museums participating in the conference.
The exhibitions will complement the conference by giving visitors direct access to original photographs and archival material from the period. They will remain open to the public until 28 October 2026.
The conference forms part of the Athens War Museum’s international activities and its efforts to strengthen dialogue and cooperation between museums and cultural institutions. It also seeks to promote the exchange of contemporary, reliable scholarly knowledge about the war, its historical legacy, collective memory and military cultural heritage.
Admission is free.
The conference will take place in the Ioannis Kapodistrias Hall at the Athens War Museum, 2 Rizari Street, Athens.
For further information, the public can call 210 7239692, email ypaspistirio@warmuseum.gr or visit the museum’s website at https://warmuseum.gr/.
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