Memory Of World War Research Articles

«ВОЙНА ДЛЯ ДЕВОЧКИ В АЛЬПИЙСКОЙ ДЕРЕВНЕ»: РЕПРЕЗЕНТАЦИИ ВОСПОМИНАНИЙ ДЕТСТВА О ВТОРОЙ МИРОВОЙ ВОЙНЕ В АВТОБИОГРАФИЧЕСКОМ ТЕКСТЕ МОНИК МЕЙЕР

The article reveals the content of representations of childhood memories of World War II in the autobiographical text of Monique Meyer, professor of economics at the University of Grenoble. Based on interdisciplinary research, the possibilities of autobiographical memory and models for their implementation in ego-texts reflecting an unprecedented personal are substantiated. In the course of the study, it was taken into account that childhood memories, like any memoir text, are based on the individual memory of the “recollector”, with its inherent immanent properties of human memory. At the same time, the starting point in the work was the thesis of M. Halbwachs, according to which the unreliability of individual memory can be compensated by relying on commemorative remains, as well as plots included in the social framework of memory, which allow “triggering” the mechanism of memories.

On war and memory: First World War memorials and collective memory in Britain, France and Germany

ABSTRACT The centennial anniversary of the end of World War I brought leaders of tens of countries together in Paris. Despite the unity with which the commemorations were carried out, war memorials in different states have often accomplished various goals. This paper will focus on how WWI memorials have aided in the building of national collective memories in Britain, France, and Germany, and will assess their role in the creation and replication of national identities. Memorials evoking ‘modes of collectivity’ as well as ‘atmospheres of remembrance’ will be discussed to show the prevalence of commemorations in the victorious states.

“It felt better to stay quiet”

This article analyzes Kathy Kacer’s Masters of Silence (2019), a novel about Marcel Marceau – the renowned mime artist who during the war cooperated with the French Resistance – and two fictional Jewish siblings struggling with the trauma of losing their parents, anti-Semitism, and the suppression of identity in a Catholic convent in southern France. The author examines the narrative techniques used by Kacer, including the combination of fiction with history and some elements of the biography of Marceau, and demonstrates that she not only shares the next-generation memory of World War II with her young readers but also depicts nonverbal ways of coping with trauma as potentially effective and empowering. Whereas Kacer’s indifference to historical dates may be connected to her determination to portray Marceau as an adolescent role model, the novel is a successful narrative about trauma and the Holocaust history, and the depiction of Marceau’s acts of resistance does not overshadow the young protagonists who do not just quiver and follow the instructions of the adults but mainly try to gain agency.

Jazz Fiction and the Holocaust: Reading History for Clues in the Novels of John A. Williams and Esi Edugyan

Abstract This article draws attention to a body of fiction that expands our understanding of the Holocaust by imaginatively reconstructing the neglected experiences of Black victims of Nazi persecution. Two key examples are John A. Williams’ Clifford’s Blues (1999) and Esi Edugyan’s Half-Blood Blues (2011), both of which recall the Black jazz musicians in wartime Europe caught up in the Nazis’ genocidal campaign. Seeking to integrate their stories into the collective memory of World War II, Williams and Edugyan combine Holocaust fiction’s documentary effect with characteristic thematic and formal strategies of jazz fiction. Williams adopts the solitary voice of the troubled bluesman, while Edugyan embraces jazz’s polyvocality. Notwithstanding the risks of Holocaust analogies that Clifford’s Blues in particular exposes, both novels illustrate the capacity of jazz fiction to produce revisionary historical narratives and intervene in memory culture.

Pamięć marginalizowana, niechciana, cicha… – łódzkie getto w polityce pamięci historycznej PRL

Tragiczne doświadczenia więźniów drugiego po warszawskim największego getta zorganizowanego przez Niemców na ziemiach polskich z rzadka jedynie były włączane do obszaru oficjalnych upamiętnień drugiej wojny światowej w okresie PRL. Celem tekstu jest prześledzenie zarówno postępującej marginalizacji pamięci zbiorowej o łódzkim getcie w latach 1945–1989, jak i wskazanie specyficznych nisz, w których jej kultywowanie było dozwolone. Autora interesuje przede wszystkim problem komunistycznej polityki pamięci historycznej w odniesieniu do losów łódzkiej „dzielnicy zamkniętej”, czyli przejawy odgórnego formatowania zbiorowych wyobrażeń na temat okupacyjnych losów odciętych od świata zewnętrznego Bałut. W tle prowadzonych rozważań pojawia się także kwestia napięć między pamięcią oficjalną, a potoczną oraz pytanie o to, kiedy i w jakich kontekstach zasoby tej drugiej mogły zaistnieć w przestrzeni publicznej Polski Ludowej. Podstawą źródłową artykułu są wydawnictwa, prasa oraz wybrane dokumenty instytucji współtworzących komunistyczną politykę pamięci historycznej

Historical Memory and Practices of Monumental Commemoration of World War I in Australia (Part 1)

The authors’ research attention is focused on the specifics of the Australian memorial practices dedicated to the World War I. The statement is substantiated that in the Australian context memorials and military monuments formed a special post-war and post-traumatic part of the visual memory of the first Australian global military conflict. The features of the Australian memorial concept are clarified, the social function of the monuments and their important role in the psychological overcoming of the trauma and bitter losses experienced are noted. The multifaceted aspects of visualization of the monumental memory of the World War I in Australia are analyzed. Monuments and memorials are an important part of Australia’s visual heritage. It is concluded that each Australian State has developed its own concept of memory, embodied in various types and nature of monuments. The main ones are analyzed in detail: Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne (1928–1934); Australian War Memorial in Canberra (1941); Sydney Cenotaph (1927-1929) and Anzac Memorial in Sydney (1934); Desert Mounted Corps Memorial in Western Australia (1932); Victoria Memorials: Avenue of Honour and Victory Arch in Ballarat (1917-1919), Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial (2004), Great Ocean Road – the longest nationwide memorial (1919-1932); Hobart War Memorial in the Australian State of Tasmania (1925), as well as Villers-Bretonneux Australian National Memorial in France dedicated to French-Australian cooperation during the World War I (1938). The authors demonstrate an inseparable connection between the commemorative practices of Australia and the politics of national identity, explore the trends in the creation and development of memorial practices. It is noted that the overwhelming majority of memorial sites are based on the clearly expressed function of a place of memory, a place of mourning and commemoration. It was found that the representation of the memorial policy of the memory of Australia in the first post-war years was implemented at the beginning at the local level and was partially influenced by British memorial practices, transforming over time into a nationwide cultural resource.

Metamorphoses of memory of the the Russian-Serbian Brotherhood of War in Modern Serbia

The article considers the perception of World War II in modern Serbian society. Despite the stability of Serbian-Russian shared historical memory, the attitudes of both countries towards World wars differ. There is a huge contrast in the perception of the First and Second World War in Russian and Serbian societies. For the Serbs the events of World War II are obscured by the memories of the Civil War, which broke out in the country immediately after the occupation in 1941 and continued several years after 1945. Over 70% of Yugoslavs killed during the Second World War were slaughtered by the citizens of former Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The terror unleashed by Tito in the first postwar decade in 1944-1954 was proportionally bloodier than Stalin repressions in the postwar USSR. The number of emigrants from Yugoslavia after the establishment of the Tito's dictatorship was proportionally equal to the number of refugees from Russia after the Civil War (1,5-2% of prewar population). In the post-war years, open manipulations with the obvious facts of World War II took place in Tito's Yugoslavia. In the 1990s the memories repressed during the communist years were set free and publicly debated. After the fall of the one-party system the memory of World War II was devalued. The memory of the Russian-Serbian military fraternity forged during the World War II began to revive in Serbia due to the foreign policy changes in 2008. In October 2008 the President of Russia paid a visit to Serbia which began the process of (re) construction of World War II in Serbian historical memory. According to the public opinion surveys, a positive attitude towards Russia and Russians in Serbia strengthens the memories on general resistance to Nazism with memories of fratricide during the civil conflict events of 1941-1945 still dominating in Serbian society.

Creating commemorative spaces in independent Ireland: the construction and use of publicly sited First World War memorials, 1919–1970

ABSTRACT In the aftermath of the First World War, widespread public commemoration of the war dead came to be focused on the war memorials erected on the squares and thoroughfares of many towns and villages in the countries involved in the conflict. For dead soldier’s families, not afforded an opportunity to honour their loved ones with the traditional rituals of mourning and interment, war memorials afforded a surrogacy for these important rites. However, the experience in Ireland was different. As Ireland embarked on a bloody and divisive journey towards political independence from Britain between 1916 and 1922, the commemoration of the 35,000 Irish men killed while fighting with the British Army during the war became highly politicized post 1919. In the nascent Irish-Free State, the socio-political space came to be dominated by nationalist rhetoric and ideologies and war memorial construction in this post-colonial context was stunted. While a national war, memorial was finally completed in Dublin by 1939 that memorial is outside the scope of this research, which instead focuses upon the construction of commemorative spaces outside the capital city, where only 12, publicly sited war memorials were completed during the period 1919–1930. This article charts the ‘life-cycle’ of these war memorials considering their planning, design, funding, location, unveiling and subsequent usage as sites for annual commemorative ceremonies of remembrance down to 1970. It highlights the range of challenges faced by organizing committees in securing sites for their memorials, while also demonstrating a heightened awareness within committees, as to how these memorials were going to be interpreted and ‘read’ by those who viewed them. Sensitivity and nuanced attention to detail with regard to the design, iconography, inscription and materials used in mediating a specific ‘Irishness’ for each memorial is detailed in illustrating how local war memorial committees tried to pre-empt challenges from those with antagonistic attitudes and views. Working within these constrained political environments, many of the resulting war memorials were based on conservative and hackneyed designs inspired by the Celtic Revival, in marked contrast to the more diverse range of memorials evident in Northern Ireland. Unveiling ceremonies provided opportunities to demonstrate the underlying purpose of each memorial as a site of commemoration for soldiers from each local area, a function which as this article articulates many fulfilled until 1970, when the outbreak of violence in Northern Ireland and the subsequent ‘Troubles’ brought a hiatus in commemoration in the Republic of Ireland.

A “Monument to the American and Filipino Alliance for Freedom”: The Pacific War Memorial and Second World War Remembrance

The Pacific War Memorial on Corregidor Island in the Philippines was erected by the United States government to commemorate Filipino and American soldiers who had lost their lives during the Second World War. Inaugurated in 1968, it was the first American memorial on Philippine soil since the United States had recognized the Philippines as an independent country in 1946, following almost fifty years of colonial rule. This article interprets the monument and the wider Corregidor memoryscape. It examines how the United States, the Philippines and the Second World War are depicted both within and around the memorial and what this suggests about the creation and persistence of colonial memory. The article explores the tensions between colonial and decolonized remembrance, and the extent to which the Pacific War Memorial serves as a historical marker for the United States’ achievements in the Philippines.

Scenographing Resistance

In 1942 Vilhelm Moberg’s (1898–1973) highly successful historical novel Ride This Night! (1941) was adapted for the theatre and premiered at several Swedish theatres as well as being distributed as a film. While Sweden maintained what was termed a neutral position during World War II, Moberg’s novel, together with its various performances, facilitated a mood of resistance against Nazism. In recognition of this, the focus of my article is the much-celebrated first performance of Ride This Night at the City Theatre (Stadsteatern) in Gothenburg on 14 October 1942. To explore this performance as theatrical memory of World War II, I draw on recent scenography theory emphasizing the holistic role of material and affective relations between bodies, objects and environments. By doing so, the article contributes an historical case study to the international field of critical scenography, and challenges the ways in which previous Swedish art and theatre historiography has theoretically understood and explored the powers of scenographic traits of past performance.

Practices of Remembrance: The Experiences of Artists and Curators in the Centenary Commemoration of World War I

The centenary of World War One was marked in the UK by an unprecedented national investment in the creative arts as a vehicle for remembrance. This scale of funding for commemorative arts, not least under a government whose mantra had been economic “austerity”, demonstrates the importance that the nation-state placed on remembrance and on engaging the public in acts of memory through the arts. In the aftermath of the centenary, funding bodies have commissioned evaluations of this programming. These evaluations have focused on audiences reached, organisations benefitted, and social transformation. What remain occluded by the reports are the experiences of the artists themselves and the curators with whom they worked. In this article I explore the personal and affective experiences of several artists and curators whose work contributed to this national programme of remembrance. I ask: to what extent did artists and curators consciously engage with prior artistic responses to World War One? How did the context of collective commemoration and memory-making inform their practice and the works produced? What did their involvement in this programme of national remembrance make them feel? What were the narratives of the war they wanted to tell? To begin to answer these questions, I draw on a series of one-to-one interviews conducted with a number of artists and curators who were involved in commemorative projects in the UK and overseas.

Zofia Lissa, Wartime Trauma, and the Evolution of the Polish “Mass Song”

Scholars have primarily seen the musicologist Zofia Lissa (1908–80) as a communist ideologue and key instigator of the Sovietization of Polish musical culture after World War II. An examination of materials from seven archives in three countries related to her life reveals a more complex picture of her views and of how she deployed her power. Before World War II she was a fierce advocate for both modernist aesthetics and communist politics, as well as a cutting-edge thinker about issues of social identity. World War II, which forced her to flee deep into the Soviet Union to avoid the Holocaust, transformed her thinking about these topics. Working in Moscow with a Polish and Polish-Jewish diaspora, she saw how popular song could mobilize war-wearied exiles despite seemingly unbridgeable political and social fissures. These ideas became the core of Lissa’s postwar advocacy for the mass song, a genre of accessible socialist music that had deep roots in the USSR. Viewing the Polish mass song from Lissa’s perspective reveals how she believed that the genre could reflect the experiences of widespread loss among Poles and harness these reactions in service of a communist musical culture. In showing how musical performance can enunciate collective identities founded in the experience of trauma, Lissa’s views shed light on a cultural logic that continues to inform commemorations of World War II in Poland to this day.

Past Is Another Resource: Remembering the 70th Anniversary of the Victory Day on LiveJournal

AbstractIn our article we examine changes experienced by media and memory systems in Russia since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis. Using as an example a popular Russian blogging platform, LiveJournal, we scrutinize how the digital practices related to commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany are influenced by the growing instrumentalization of Second World War memory for media propaganda and manipulation. Using topic modeling to analyze a large set of data on Russian users’ interactions with the platform, we examine how hegemonic and alternative interpretations of the Second World War interact on LiveJournal and how their interactions are influenced by the growing antagonism between Russia and the West. Our findings suggest that LiveJournal constitutes a fractured memory system, which is characterized by uneven representation of Second World War experiences and the growing influence of pro-government actors promoting hegemonic war narratives. However, our observations also show that instrumentalization of the past in the context of the Ukraine crisis does not necessarily interfere with digital practices of Second World War commemoration with the latter remaining unaffected by the events in Ukraine.

日本のテレビにおける「第二次世界大戦」の記憶の再構築：2017年の調査で確認された「他者」の「過少表出」をめぐって

日本のテレビにおける「第二次世界大戦」の記憶の再構築：2017年の調査で確認された「他者」の「過少表出」をめぐって

Don't Mention the War! Second World War Remembrance and Support for European Cooperation

AbstractThe notion that through increased state cooperation and dependency, national divisions can be overcome and peace can be secured, is at the core of European integration. Political elites often refer to the devastations of the Second World War (WWII) as a way to convey the added value of European cooperation today. Do references to the devastations of WWII enhance public support for European cooperation today? By presenting evidence from survey experiments conducted in the six largest member states (France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the Great Britain) in July 2017, this study suggest that they do, albeit only when it comes to financial assistance for other member states in dire economic need. References to the devastations of WWII do not make respondents more willing to support free movement of people or the establishment of a European army. These findings suggest that reminding people of the devastations of WWII triggers a largely transactional response among the public: a willingness to provide financial support, but nothing more. This evidence suggests that securing public support for free movement of people or European security cooperation through historical rhetoric might be difficult to achieve.

Информационные сражения на полях исторической памяти о Второй мировой и Великой Отечественной войнах

Информационные сражения на полях исторической памяти о Второй мировой и Великой Отечественной войнах

Политика памяти о Второй мировой войне в современной Франции: этнополитические факторы и партийные конфронтации

The article analyzes the transformation of the policy of memory of World War II in France from 1995 to 2020. The authors identify party actors of memory policy and consider the relationship of their views within the framework of foreign policy and domestic political strategies for the development of French policy. Representatives of left-wing parties maintain the idea of the Resistance, while far-right parties seek the rehabilitation of Marshal Petén. Centrist parties take a conciliatory position, seeking to preserve the national-heroic aspect of the memory of the war and to fit into the pan-European trend of victimization. A separate aspect of the study is the analysis of the ethno-political factor in modern France and the identification of its role in shaping and changing images of the past.

WWII and XXth Century Wars in the Collective Memory of different generations of Russians: visual methods research

The collective memory about wars is an object of study, as well as the formation and upbringing within the educational process. The category of generation, collective memory, and psychological trauma are considered as central in the framework of the study described here. It is assumed that wars are significant for the formation of psycho-traumatic experience of a generation. Using visual methods, in which people were asked using self-report to evaluate their feelings and emotions when looking at photographs of various wars of the twentieth century, the hypothesis was tested that the role of the Second World War is the most traumatic compared to other wars due to its role, proximity in time and media effect. The conclusions are drawn about the absence of fundamental differences in the memory of World War II by all generations of Russians (N = 548 people) in all emotional and traumatic parameters, except for the parameter of feeling of pride in the results of the war.

Друга Світова війна: трансформація історичної політики в Україні (2014–2020 рр.)

Abstract. Introduction . The article analyzes the main directions of historical policy transformation of Ukraine in the context of the confrontation on the symbolic field of the Second World war in the conditions of aggravation of the Russian-Ukrainian confrontation during 2014-2020. Purpose. The annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war in the Donbass in 2014 actualized historical policy because during the hybrid war the aggressor country struck not only heavily with weapons but also launched a massive information war. Results . One of its directions was the symbolic space of the Second World War, which was conditioned by the importance of this large-scale armed confrontation for population of modern Ukraine and the Russian Federation. In response to the Russian propagandists’ criticisms of the “fascination” of Ukraine, the memory of the heroic struggle against the Nazis during the German-Soviet War was actualized in the Ukrainian-centric discourse, further developing a study of collaborationism, proving that the most ambitious aid to the invaders was The Russian Liberation Army, led by General Vlasov. Scholars, publicists, and community activists have also widely covered the means of manipulating the historical memory of World War II, which have become widespread in Russian-centric discourse. Conclusion . The analysis made it possible to state that the Ukrainian memory policy of the Second World War should be directed at forming ideas about it as a tragedy of all mankind, which should never be repeated. Also, it is important to create a strong conviction in the population that the USSR acted as an ally of Germany at the beginning of World War II, taking an active part in fueling it. Historical policies should take action to clarify and explain the warring parties’ goals and objectives as well as to analyze the means and methods of achieving them in the course of hostilities. It is probably desirable to analyze the UPA’s struggle in the context of its comparison with the opposition of the East Ukrainian peasantry to the policy of Sovietization. Even more so, because of such a counteraction was so widespread that one of the means of overcoming it was the Holodomor Genocide.

Problems of Historical Past in Japanese Social and Political Life

The article analyzes the transformation and the present state of evaluation of Japan’s colonial and historical past in this nation’s postwar social and political life. The study of these problems through the lens of their historical development permits one to make the following conclusions. The key element of the memory of World War II is the idea of the Japanese people as a victim of this war. As for the notion of responsibility for the war past, for many decades, it occupied a relatively peripheral place in social consciousness. It became more salient only towards the end of the 20th century, but the activities of the organizations and politicians who were bringing up these questions produced a reaction from right-wing and revisionist forces, who believed that Japan had to stop endlessly repenting for its past wrongs. By the present moment, a certain equilibrium has formed concerning this issue: as a rule, the ruling conservative forces do not make any openly revisionist statements, but at the same time try not to emphasize the problem of responsibility for the war past. Understating the said specifics is important, among other things, from the point of view of promoting a dialogue on the issues of historical past between Russia and Japan.