Artifacts and tears: Afghans confront emotional costs of war

A veteran of Afghanistan’s endless wars, Kabal Shah can only wipe away his tears when he frees his hand from one of his crutches, holding the metal support steady with the stump of his amputated leg.

Wearing a thick beard on his grizzled face and a wool shawl over his shoulder to ward off the late winter cold, Mr. Shah is part of the emotional outpouring at the opening of the Afghanistan Center for Memory and Dialogue – the first repository of four decades of victims’ memories to be systematically collected in the country.

The center is a project of the Afghan Human Rights and Democracy Organization (AHRDO), which since 2009 has sought to foster interethnic and intercommunity peace through cultural and artistic initiatives such as traveling theater productions and memory workshops.

Mr. Shah has propped himself for