Dissonant memories : National Identity, Political Power, and the Commemoration of World War Two in Switzerland

Dejung, Christof

Dissonant memories : National Identity, Political Power, and the Commemoration of World War Two in Switzerland

Files

Dejung_Dissonant memories_2007.pdf(861.67 KB)

Date

2007

Publication type

Journal article

Published in

Oral History ; 35 (2007), 2. - pp. 57-66

Abstract

The 1990s debate surrounding the Swiss bank accounts of Holocaust victims has led to a revision of the historical view of Switzerland s role in World War Two, which until then was dominated by the image of an innocent and resisting nation. The theory of commemoration of German researchers Jan and Aleida Assmann can help us to understand the ostensible clash of history and memory that occurred during this debate. Based on the results of the oral history project Archimob. The article shows that despite the long-time dominant view of the country s past, several partial memories have existed which have threatened to oppose this, but which had no chance of being articulated in public. This leads to the conclusion that the dominance of a certain method of commemoration in public is always a means for gaining social power.

Subject (DDC)

300 Social Sciences, Sociology

Keywords

Communicative Memory,Cultural Memory,Holocaust,World War Two,Switzerland

Cite This

ISO 690

DEJUNG, Christof, 2007. Dissonant memories : National Identity, Political Power, and the Commemoration of World War Two in Switzerland. In: Oral History. 35(2), pp. 57-66

BibTex

@article{Dejung2007Disso-11577,
  year={2007},
  title={Dissonant memories : National Identity, Political Power, and the Commemoration of World War Two in Switzerland},
  number={2},
  volume={35},
  journal={Oral History},
  pages={57--66},
  author={Dejung, Christof}
}

RDF

<rdf:RDF
    xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"
    xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
    xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
    xmlns:bibo="http://purl.org/ontology/bibo/"
    xmlns:dspace="http://digital-repositories.org/ontologies/dspace/0.1.0#"
    xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"
    xmlns:void="http://rdfs.org/ns/void#"
    xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#" > 
  <rdf:Description rdf:about="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/11577">
    <dcterms:available rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime">2011-03-25T09:35:07Z</dcterms:available>
    <dc:format>application/pdf</dc:format>
    <dc:rights>terms-of-use</dc:rights>
    <dcterms:issued>2007</dcterms:issued>
    <void:sparqlEndpoint rdf:resource="http://localhost/fuseki/dspace/sparql"/>
    <bibo:uri rdf:resource="http://kops.uni-konstanz.de/handle/123456789/11577"/>
    <foaf:homepage rdf:resource="http://localhost:8080/"/>
    <dcterms:bibliographicCitation>First publ. in: Oral History 35 (2007), 2, pp. 57-66</dcterms:bibliographicCitation>
    <dcterms:title>Dissonant memories : National Identity, Political Power, and the Commemoration of World War Two in Switzerland</dcterms:title>
    <dc:date rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime">2011-03-25T09:35:07Z</dc:date>
    <dc:contributor>Dejung, Christof</dc:contributor>
    <dc:creator>Dejung, Christof</dc:creator>
    <dcterms:isPartOf rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/32"/>
    <dcterms:hasPart rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/bitstream/123456789/11577/1/Dejung_Dissonant%20memories_2007.pdf"/>
    <dspace:isPartOfCollection rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/32"/>
    <dcterms:rights rdf:resource="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/"/>
    <dc:language>eng</dc:language>
    <dcterms:abstract xml:lang="eng">The 1990s debate surrounding the Swiss bank accounts of Holocaust victims has led to a revision of the historical view of Switzerland s role in World War Two, which until then was dominated by the image of an innocent and resisting nation. The theory of commemoration of German researchers Jan and Aleida Assmann can help us to understand the ostensible clash of history and memory that occurred during this debate. Based on the results of the oral history project Archimob. The article shows that despite the long-time dominant view of the country s past, several partial memories have existed which have threatened to oppose this, but which had no chance of being articulated in public. This leads to the conclusion that the dominance of a certain method of commemoration in public is always a means for gaining social power.</dcterms:abstract>
    <dspace:hasBitstream rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/bitstream/123456789/11577/1/Dejung_Dissonant%20memories_2007.pdf"/>
  </rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>

Bibliography of Konstanz

Yes