Dr. Matthew C. Moen, president of the Gettysburg Foundation, will participate in the World Battlefield Museums Forum on Sept. 4, 2018 in Gdańsk, Poland and discuss battlefields as break through places for historical events.
“I am pleased to represent our Friends and other supporters as an invited guest at the conference,” said Moen. “Examining conflict and remembrance in a global context is a thoughtful and respectful way to remember those who have perished in violence over the centuries around the world.”
The forum, hosted by the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk, Poland, is slated for Sept. 4-6, 2018. The forum will explore the topics of battlefields as places of national remembrance, battlefields and the intersection between the sacred and a tourist attraction, and battlefields as symbolic places of commemoration. Moen’s panel includes speakers from Memorial 1815 Waterloo (Belgium), Mémorial de Verdun (France), Hussite Museum in Tábor (Czech Republic), and Gallipoli Historic Site (Turkey).
“Gettysburg reset the Civil War, defined a generation, and shaped the destiny of our nation. It highlights the contradictory impulses of human nature—our almost inexplicable mixture of fierce fighting followed by deep compassion and healing, with conflict giving way to remembrance and conciliation,” said Moen.
Other historical sites represented at the forum include the Archaeological Museum of Marathon (Greece), Pacific Historic Parks (Hawai’i), and National Museum of Military History (Bulgaria).
For more information about the World Battlefield Museums Forum visit the Museum of the Second World War website at https://muzeum1939.pl/en.
Download a high-resolution photo of Dr. Matthew Moen.