By Olsa Tahiraj
It’s been almost three decades since the last sounds of war echoed throughout Kosovë, yet those echoes have not yet faded from memory. Some memories live in monuments, others live quietly in conversations, family photographs, stories, songs, unfinished houses and in the silence that people carry with them as heavy baggage. For many young people born after the war, these memories are not their own, yet they continue to shape how they understand their families, communities and the past.
As the generation with no direct memory of the war reaches adulthood, this raises important questions about how memories are passed from one generation to the next. What role do young people play in preserving these stories? How can they engage with the past respectfully while building a future that is not defined solely by conflict? These questions have become increasingly relevant as remembrance moves from lived experience to inherited memory.
The answers are often found in ordinary moments. In some villages around Peja, young adults born in the early 2000s still recall stories from their childhood about Italian KFOR soldiers who spent time with local children. Some remember tasting pasta for the first time during those visits, while also recalling a simple Italian song that they were taught and can still sing years later. Though seemingly small, these memories remain part of how many young people understand the years that followed the conflict.
Across Kosovë, many young adults share similar memories of the post war years. For them remembrance is also tied to ordinary moments from childhood. Candles, for example, represent more than the frequent power outages that many families experienced. Gathered around a dim light during long evenings without electricity, children listened as parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles shared stories of the war, displacement, loss, resilience, the pain of being forced out of their homeland and the challenge of rebuilding their lives afterward. These conversations became informal history lessons, passed down not in classrooms but in living rooms. Although each family’s story was different, the image of relatives sharing memories by candlelight remains one that many young people recognize.
Other memories are tied to places rather than conversations. Some young people grew up passing through or even playing in unfinished houses, damaged buildings, or memorial sites without fully understanding their significance. It was only later, through family stories, school lessons, or conversations with older relatives, that these places gained meaning. What once appeared to be an ordinary part of the landscape became connected to personal and collective histories. What once seemed like a normal part of their surroundings later became a point of reflection, especially for young people who are now trying to connect these spaces with the stories they inherit.
As these connections between stories, places, and personal identity deepen, remembrance often becomes a more active process. For many young people, this process of connecting memory with meaning does not remain passive. As they come of age, they increasingly begin to engage with remembrance in ways that go beyond listening. Some participate in community discussions and intergenerational dialogues where older and younger voices meet to share different perspectives on the past. Others contribute to cultural and artistic spaces where memory is explored through photography, film, writing, theatre, and music, often focusing on everyday life, identity, and the experiences of ordinary people rather than only historical events.
This active engagement also extends to preserving stories for future generations. At the same time, many young people are involved in documenting narratives that might otherwise remain unheard. Through informal conversations with grandparents, neighbours, and community members, they collect personal testimonies that reveal how differently the same period was experienced. In doing so, they help preserve accounts that are often absent from official histories, including those of civilians, women, and rural communities whose voices are not always centered in public remembrance.
Alongside documenting personal experiences, many young people are also examining how collective memory is shaped. For others, engagement with memory takes the form of education and awareness. In classrooms, workshops, and youth-led initiatives, they explore how history is taught and remembered, often questioning how narratives are shaped and who is included within them. This reflection is not about rewriting the past, but about understanding it from multiple perspectives and ensuring that remembrance remains inclusive and balanced.
Taken together, these different forms of engagement reveal a generation that is doing more than simply inheriting memory. They are actively interacting with it, shaping how it is understood and carried forward. Rather than seeing remembrance as something fixed or distant, many young people are approaching it as something lived through dialogue, creativity, and shared experience.
In everyday life, the reminders of the past are often impossible to miss. Murals painted on city walls, quotes written in public spaces, books that preserve testimonies, and memorial sites across Kosovë all stand as visible traces of history. Yet for many young people, these are no longer only static reminders of the past. They have been reinterpreted, questioned, and in some cases transformed into spaces for expression, reflection, and dialogue.
For young people in Kosovë, memory is also carried in quieter ways, through stories shared around family tables, photographs preserved over decades, and small everyday moments that continue to shape their understanding of who they are. In this sense, remembrance is not limited to public spaces or formal narratives, but lives within personal and intergenerational connections that continue to evolve over time.
The way remembrance is approached today will influence how future generations understand history. As the generation with no direct memory of the war comes of age, listening to these experiences and preserving them with care becomes increasingly important. In this process, remembrance can become more than preservation. It can serve as a bridge between generations and a tool for fostering dialogue, understanding, and peace, ensuring that memory continues to open space for connection rather than division.