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Lapland’s Dark Heritage: Responses to the Legacy of World War II

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Heritage in Action

Abstract

“Dark” or “difficult” heritage is increasingly becoming of interest to researchers. How do different communities, whether in situ, online, or united by a particular hobby or interest, relate to aspects about the past that may be difficult or painful to reconcile? Do these encounters with difficult heritage lead to exploitation, indifference, destruction, or other even more diverse responses? This chapter focuses on communities in far northern Finland where different groups, both locally and more remotely, for example via online encounters, have chosen to engage (or not to engage) with the physical remains left by German activity in Lapland during World War II. These groups, including tourists, local residents, and hobbyist treasure hunters, respond differently to this “dark” heritage generated and in so doing generate their own connections and reconnections with the past.

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Acknowledgements

The authors express their thanks to Vesa-Pekka Herva (University of Oulu, Finland) for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this chapter, and Oula Seitsonen (University of Helsinki, Finland) for producing the map for Fig. 9.1. This chapter was written as part of the research project “Lapland’s Dark Heritage: Understanding the Cultural Legacy of Northern Finland’s WWII German Materialities within Interdisciplinary Perspective,” based at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and funded by the Academy of Finland (Decision No. 275497).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, History, Culture and Art Studies, University of Helsinki, Unioninkatu 38, Helsinki, Finland

    Eerika Koskinen-Koivisto & Suzie Thomas

Authors
  1. Eerika Koskinen-Koivisto
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  2. Suzie Thomas
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Correspondence to Eerika Koskinen-Koivisto .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, USA

    Helaine Silverman

  2. Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia

    Emma Waterton

  3. Business School, York St. John University, York, United Kingdom

    Steve Watson

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Koskinen-Koivisto, E., Thomas, S. (2017). Lapland’s Dark Heritage: Responses to the Legacy of World War II. In: Silverman, H., Waterton, E., Watson, S. (eds) Heritage in Action. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42870-3_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42870-3_9

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-42868-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-42870-3

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