Thonfeld, C; (2018) The Europeanisation of cultures of remembrance in post-Cold War Europe. Cheng Kung Journal of Historical Studies , 55 (12) pp. 197-236.

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Abstract

The eastward enlargement of the European Union has shifted its geographical centre towards the east and called the Union’s previous commemorative consensus, which was based on the Holocaust, into question. In order to redefine its identity, EU member states have continuously engaged in memory politics. Most prominently, this was done through initiatives in the European Parliament, with the adoption of the Day of Remembrance of the victims of National Socialism in 2005, the announcement of the establishment of a House of European History in 2007 and the adoption of a resolution for a Europe-wide Day of Remembrance of the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes in 2009. Apart from that, European states and societies have also tried to promote their own remembrance agendas, usually based on wartime or post-war victimhood. These debates have accentuated growing tensions between EU institutions as the centre of gravitation of the Union and individual member states. They also point to conflicts between states which belonged to the formerly oppositional eastern and western power structures. This article covers central aspects of these politics of memory to discuss the problems posed by attempts to create a more unified understanding of the past in Europe.

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