Cultures of History Forum (Imre Kertész Kolleg Jena)
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75 years after Nazi Germany's defeat in 1945, different narratives of the war still mark public commemorations across the former Soviet Union, epitomized by two dates: 8 and 9 May. In Ukraine today, both are official commemorations days yet they are surrounded by contentious debates about history and identity. The article zooms in on this year's commemorations in Kharkiv discussing these debates and what they tell us about Ukraine’s evolving memory culture.
On 13 February 2020, citizens of the city of Dresden commemorated the 75th anniversary of their city's destruction by Allied bombing attacks in 1945. Subject to great contestation in politics and civil society, political protest and counter-protest also marked this year’s anniversary. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Dresden before, during and after 13 February 2020, the article reviews the public events and discusses the actors and narratives that shape Dresden’s most important remembrance day.
1945 – Defeat. Liberation. New Beginning. Twelve European Countries after the Second World War
(2015)
The article critiques a recently opened temporary exhibition about Europe’s post-war history at the German Historical Museum (DHM). While the exhibition treats all major themes of the war's end with political and historical correctness, it poses no guiding questions for visitors; neither does provide comparative perspectives. Therefore, it ultimately fails to rise above mere eclecticism. Overall the DHM fails in its attempt to grasp European history as a zone of interconnections rather than of parallel strands.
Official commemorations of the end of the Second World War in Estonia take place on May 8 and they focus on the victims of what is perceived as the most traumatic event in recent national history. A day later, another commemoration takes place that celebrates the war's end as victory and is attended by many Russian-speakers of Estonia. These two events epitomize the mnemonic landscape of Estonia characterized by two memory regimes that exist as parallel universes.
In May 1985, Yugoslav Slovenia celebrated Victory Day and the 40th anniversary of liberation. In May 2015, independent Slovenia celebrated the 70th anniversary of the war’s end as if it had been a kind of a natural process that ended, just like summer ends. What happened to the victory celebration? This article argues that the discursive differences between the two state celebrations reflect the deep crisis of official state/national ideology.
Every year in May thousands of Croats gather in the small Austrian town of Bleiburg to commemorate the so called “Bleiburg tragedy” at the end of the Second World War. Considered by some as the 'biggest neo-Nazi meeting in Europe', this event has triggered considerable controversy, not least due to its political backing from among governing parties. The article provides the historical and memory political backdrop to these controversies shedding light on Croatia's struggle with historical revisionism.
The Sered' Holocaust Memorial Museum is the only one of its kind in Slovakia. Located on the original site of the former labour and concentration camp, it tells the story of persecution, exploitation and murder of Slovak Jews during the war. While recognizing the difficulties of presenting the history of the Holocaust in Slovakia, this review reveals many shortcomings in the current permanent exhibition, which misses the chance of truly informing its visitors and raising critical historical awareness.
A new wave of de-communization has swept over Poland: streets and squares are re-named and monuments dismantled. In the cities and towns of northern and western Poland, that became Polish only after 1945, these measures are met with mixed feelings as they touch upon specific local memories of the post-war years. The article gives an insight into how local councils and citizens have struggled to comply with state history policy while also protect local historical identities.
In 2015 the Serbian Supreme Court rehabilitated wartime General Dragoljub Mihailović, who had been prosecuted by a communist tribunal in 1946. The article places the protracted rehabilitation procedure into the context of both Cold War-era memory politics regarding the figure of Mihailović and post-Milošević transitional justice politics. Pointing to the highly politicized legal procedures of this case, it provides interesting insights into Serbia’s ongoing struggles over the legacies of the Second World War.
How does Croatia come to terms with the violent history of 20th century wars? Croatian society is deeply polarized over the narratives of the Second World War. Moreover, the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s have been framed within the imagery of the Second World War and are understood either as a continuation of that war, or as the same event conducted under new circumstances. This results in an intertwining of the memories of communism, fascism and the recent Yugoslav wars.