DOI: 10.18503/2658-3186-2021-5-4-97-100
Abstract: When forming the collective historical memory of the Second World War, traditionally, primary attention was paid to events at the front, the exploits of soldiers and partisans. The tragic and painful experience of prisoners of ghettos, concentration camps, refugees remained for a long time a taboo topic. At the same time, a number of important historical aspects remain outside the field of official memory and the possibility of falsifications arises. The purpose of this study is to present war refugees as a social group with cultural trauma, to show the necessity and ways of overcoming it. The source of the study was the memories of people who survived the evacuation. The concept of «cultural trauma» and the theory of historical memory were used as a methodological approach. Analysis of interviews and recollections of refugees made it possible to single out the evacuees into a special stigmatized social group, which was united by the lack of housing and property upon arrival in the evacuation, common sources of supply, and a special social status that determined relations with the authorities, as well as with local residents. The article identifies the factors that contributed to the formation of cultural trauma in people during evacuation. Throughout the evacuation period of their lives, these people were often condemned in public opinion. In the rear areas, the evacuees were perceived as outsiders. It is concluded that the articulation of cultural trauma by a stigmatized social group that survived it contributes to the preservation of objective historical memory and changes the life values of society. Forms of such articulation can be oral interviews, published memoirs, documentaries, and feature films.
Keywords: World War II, cultural trauma, refugees, historical memory.
Author:
Marina N. Potemkina, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Head of World History Department of Institute of Humanitarian Education, Nosov Magnitogorsk State Technical University (NMSTU), Leading Researcher of the Center for the Study of Military Economics of the Institute of Social Sciences, The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RPANEPA); This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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For citation
Potemkina M. N. Historical Memory of World War II Refugees: Overcoming Cultural Trauma, Gumanitarno-pedagogicheskie issledovaniya [Humanitarian and pedagogical Research], 2021, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 97–100.