Living memory of expulsion decays and must be replaced by institutional commemoration

Evidence

As in the case of the Pieds-Noirs, the public commemoration of flight and expulsion has recently transcended the narrow sphere of expellee organizations, receiving broader public attention through, for example, the foundation of the government organization Stiftung Flucht, Vertreibung, Versöhnung (Foundation Flight, Expulsion, Reconciliation), or by television films like March of Millions (Die Flucht) in 2007. Memories of the expulsion can only be based on the personal experiences of the millions of expellees and therefore will disappear, unless they have been recorded or written down. Individual memories will eventually be replaced by practices of memory, such as political commemoration. The crucial question for the future is whether these will be able to reflect accurately and completely the wide range of authentic experiences connected to the expulsion of Germans from Eastern Europe. — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 957

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in what happens to a group’s solidarity/memory when the originating grievance recedes — here the shift from lived grievance to commemorative practice parallels the BHE collapse dynamic. — connects to: Diaspora religion shifts from lived memory environment to reconfigurable place of memory. — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in…, 926; Societies become historical by reinterpreting the past as memorial, not merely by having one; People can remember places vividly while forgetting the events that occurred in them — Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Death in the Family, 1085 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• The 1987 crash memory persists institutionally even as living memory fades #exemplifies (0.90) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 935
• Societies become historical by reinterpreting the past as memorial, not merely by having one #corroborates (0.80)
• Diaspora religion shifts from lived memory environment to reconfigurable place of memory. #qualifies (0.75) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 926
• People can remember places vividly while forgetting the events that occurred in them #corroborates (0.72) — Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Death in the Family, 1085
• Black memory collapses past and present betrayals into one trauma #exemplifies (0.72) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 456