Abstract
This analysis sets out with Zygmunt Bauman’s insight about memorials and commemorations in mind: despite popular belief that they heal the wounds of loss, in practice they heal nothing because they are never about reconciliation. The example analyzed in light of Bauman’s statement is a memorial narrative of Yugoslav forced laborers in Nazi camps in Norway during World War II. From 1942 to 1945 thousands of forced laborers were sent to Nazi labor camps in Norway. The labor was used to build the Atlantic Wall, a German defense line for occupied western Europe against Allied invasion.
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Notes
- 1.
Michael Stokke Norske leirer: Beisfjord ved Narvik, 1942–1945. https://www.hlsenteret.no/kunnskapsbasen/folkemord/folkemord-under-nazismen/bakgrunn/fangeleire/beisfjord.html
- 2.
For more details see Ognjenovic 2016.
- 3.
- 4.
This of course does not give an explanation as to how everything was related to the camps ended up with a Serbian prefix (Serbian hut, Serbian Mother, Serbian Camps, etc). See Ognjenovic 2016.
- 5.
Michael Stokke Norske leirer: Beisfjord ved Narvik, 1942–1945. https://www.hlsenteret.no/kunnskapsbasen/folkemord/folkemord-under-nazismen/bakgrunn/fangeleire/beisfjord.html
- 6.
Refs. Refugee and prisoner directorate, Repatriation office, box Fb0007, National Archive Oslo.
- 7.
Protokoll over sammendragning av. jugoslaviske krigsgraver i Norge (Summary protocol over Yugoslavian War Graves in Norway) FORSVARSDEP.I 000920–9. @Feb. 1955.
- 8.
- 9.
EVZ, The law on the creation of a foundation «Remember, Responsibility and Future»: http://www.stiftung-evz.deleng/about-us/foundation_law/
- 10.
Stiftung EVZ: http//www.stiftung-evz.de/eng/pressdownloads/facts-and-figures/
- 11.
- 12.
- 13.
- 14.
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Ognjenovic, G. (2021). The Highway of Memorial Symbolism: A Thin Red Line. In: Ognjenovic, G., Jozelic, J. (eds) Nationalism and the Politicization of History in the Former Yugoslavia. Modernity, Memory and Identity in South-East Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65832-8_8
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