Description
Rob van der LaarseTerrorscapes and Occupationscapes: Europe’s shared or contested heritage in the East and West?
From the Second World War onwards European political integration is based on the assumption of a common cultural heritage. Yet, does such a shared heritage really exist? Notwithstanding the common roots of European culture and the on-going project of the Enlightenment, Europe’s nation-states share a history of war and conflict. Nonetheless, the devastating horrors of two World Wars have for the last six decades stimulated a unique process of unification. Millions of fallen soldiers, the mass slaughter of European civilians, and the destruction of the Jews have determined Europe’s postwar humanist identity. In particular from 1989 politics of memory play a crucial role in this process. Yet, I will argue that the assumption of the Holocaust as a common European experience, and hence as a basic part of Europe’s postwar identity, raises some critical objections. The Holocaust paradigm will be challenged by a deep incompatibility of opinions about the impact, interpretation and meaning of the World Wars and the Cold War between Western and Eastern European populations. Regarding this fundamental difference in the experience of war and repression, ‘dark’ or ‘painful’ heritage sites run the risk of ending up in a memory war. This asks for completely new interpretations of Europe’s terrorscapes and occupationscapes, to be grasped from a transnational comparative perspective.
| Period | 26 Aug 2012 |
|---|---|
| Event title | ‘Forgotten’ War and Occupation Heritage: Shedding Light on the Darkness |
| Event type | Lecture |