Among the 20 million Gulag prisoners there were hundred of thousands of citizens of European countries. In contrast to the fact that people from many European countries have passed through the Soviet camps, there is a lack of general awareness about this common European part of history. The younger generation, especially in Western Europe, has little idea that something like the Gulag existed. Although the situation in Central and Eastern Europe is slightly better, it is also not satisfactory. Moreover, hundreds of abandoned Gulag camps are still located far away in remote parts of Siberia, and they are almost inaccessible for visitors. There are no school excursions, no museums, and often even no information that it is a place of former camp. The main aim of the project is to create a learning model based on ‘Extended Reality’ - virtual and augmented reality and new ICT technologies - of the Gulag camps and the history of Soviet repressions. Our ambition is to increase awareness of totalitarian systems among young generations. Didactic application of the resulting educational tools using virtual and augmented reality will make it possible to increase the efficiency and attractiveness of teaching the 20th century history (and in other areas and subjects as well). It will be developed by a consortium of organizations from Germany, Poland, Slovakia and Czechia, which focus on the education and the topic of Soviet repressions against their nations. The leading organization is the Czech Gulag.cz Association, which has been developed a unique research projects of abandoned Gulag camps in Siberia. It is the only one organization in the World using modern archaeological methods in Gulag research and at the same time using new technologies to spread the information and results. New educational tools will be developed by the best and experienced specialists in new technologies, archaeology, education and didactics. It will be disseminated in all involved countries and we hope to spread it also beyond its borders, to the whole European Union. We are sure that thanks to developing the tool Gulag XR we will reach following objectives: - Raising awareness of young generation to the topic of Soviet repressions.- Focus on common, European dimension of the history of the Gulag and Soviet repressions and therefore strengthening our common democratic values.- Use of modern ICT technologies as virtual and augmented reality in schools.-- Creation of a new pedagogical model of teaching contemporary history using AR and VR, which can then be used in other areas and subjects as well

MEMENTOES will build immersive video games to service the needs, and facilitate mass audience affection for museums engaged in the topics of memorialisation and transitional justice. The goal is to create authentic storytelling experiences, where people, places and original items, are used to maximum effect to fulfill the museum’s responsibility to provide immersive, deeply personal experiences that aim to demonstrate empathy toward their communities. Through cutting-edge technology, such as virtual/mixed reality,high-quality digitisation techniques, AI for explorative procedural content generation, and accessible interaction techniques, MEMENTOES will deliver a universal experience where distant people and places will become palpable and present to the players. MEMENTOES will involve a multi-disciplinary team of museum curators, designers and exhibit developers, as well as technology providers and visionary game developers so as to uncover the types of connections museum visitors are making, enabling the game makers to understand the types of education techniques and behaviors that foster historical empathy and tangential learning outcomes and draw appropriate parallels to game storytelling frameworks. Three game will be developed, each targeting an authentic museum recognised internationally as a Site of Conscience, to help get deliver the museum messages to wider audiences from around the world, transcending even the boundaries put in place by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. MEMENTOES will further facilitate a liaison with the outcomes of HORIZON-CL2-HERITAGE-2021-01-09: ‘Games and culture shaping our society’, contributing with its evidence on games as a vehicle to engage cultural institution visitors in empathetic responses.