One of the many pleasures of working with a team which comes from all over Europe lies in the occasional insights it grants you into the importance of different perspectives. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the views taken of mid to late twentieth century history. Some may recall a really interesting post a while back by Hungarian editor Péter in which he made a few most pertinent points, and contrasted the attitudes of “western” and “eastern” colleagues towards some issues.

So it was fascinating to attend this week a conference of public sector communicators from across Europe, including a discussion of how to communicate the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, or, as colleagues such as Péter occasionally remind us, the fall of communism in central and eastern Europe which actually occurred over a period of time and in a variety of different ways.

I won’t go into the discussion here. The purpose of this post is simply to embed to videos, both produced by public authorities, to mark the anniversary. They are both worth watching.

 I will refrain from comment. Except to ask one question: is one of these for westerners and one of them for easterners?

The first was made by the Czech government. It seeks to tell children what the Iron Curtain was and what it was like to live behind it. It is made by Czechs for Czechs, but this version has English subtitles. (10 minutes) I posted this to the internet myself, as it is not yet there anywhere else. The Czech official who presented this said this was fine; it is free for distribution.

The Iron Curtain for Kids on Vimeo.

The second clip was made for the European Commission and is posted on EUTube. Very different style, as you will see.

I will refrain from comment. Except to ask one question: is one of these for westerners and one of them for easterners?