2.20. Inherited Pasts: Second-Generation Memory and the Afterlives of Violence [ES/EN]

What will happen to Holocaust memory when the last witnesses are gone? Long reliant on survivor testimonies, Holocaust remembrance is now at a critical turning point. In an era where facts are diluted by disinformation, and xenophobia and antisemitism rise globally, preserving complex memory has become more urgent than ever. For that reason, Holocaust remembrance should be rethought through user engagement, with future generations in mind (Hogervorst, 2020). At the same time, video games continue to grow in popularity and influence. With their immersive mechanics, high user engagement, and player agency, games offer more than narratives – they afford lived experiences. By utilizing unique poetic mechanisms embedded in their interactivity (Chew and Mitchell, 2020), games can depict what other media cannot, making the unimaginable and perplexing – tangible. This makes video games a powerful medium for cultivating critical thinking and fostering empathy, possibly promoting “prosthetic memory.” (Landsberg, 2003) This research focuses on three case studies, differing in historical accuracy, types of agency, and genre. It uses a mixed, holistic methodology – content analysis, interviews with game designers, and impact on end-users. Thus far, the main conclusion is that the approach to the depiction of the Holocaust was influenced by the financial approach to game creation – the commercial prospects inadvertently guided the historical mediation, in accuracy, aesthetics, and in-game context. This research suggest video games as a new frontier for Holocaust remembrance. It examines their potential as tools for education and the transmission of cultural memory with the digital-native generation in a post-witness world.

This research investigates the perpetuation and transformation of cycles of violence through the lens of intergenerational traumas, with a specific focus on the second-generation memory of children of forced displacement victims in Colombia. The study aims to highlight the critical gap in public policy addressing these second-generation memories, which remain an unexplored phenomenon in Colombia. The research reveals that the absence of targeted psychosocial care for children of displacement victims allows the transmission of traumatic memories to future generations, thereby perpetuating cycles of violence and trauma. By using a mixed methodology, the study combines documentary analysis with semi-structured interviews of minors and their guardians, along with a textual analysis of children's drawings and letters. The findings underscore the significant impact of second-generation memory on children's mental health, including disrupted sleep cycles and ingrained feelings of fear and revenge towards armed groups they have never encountered and events they never lived. This underscores the necessity of incorporating trauma-informed approaches into conflict resolution and peacebuilding efforts. By fostering a deeper understanding of trauma and inter-generational memory, this research advocates for the integration of comprehensive psychosocial care into public policies, as it facilitates transitional justice in post-conflict settings. Ultimately, this study contributes to the development of more effective strategies for conflict resolution, emphasizing the importance of addressing the long-term impacts of trauma and memory transmission to break the cycle of violence and build lasting peace.

This proposed presentation does not intend to present neither a new theory on how World War II has been commemorated in German society nor on intergenerational family memory. Instead, it tries to develop a perspective from below, from a family of a historian of Eastern Europe. Based on personal observations and enquiries, it will be discussed, how the German occupation of Poland and the war against the Soviet Union were present and absent at the same time in everyday life in West-Germany. The presentation focuses on three paintings by well-known contemporary artists from Poland and Ukraine that were acquired or commissioned by members of my family during the war: A village scene by the Ukrainian painter Mykhailo Kozyk and two portraits of my father’s parents, painted by Wacław Bielawski from Warsaw in 1941. Memory connected to these paintings covers more than just ordinary German family history: Issues to be discussed comprise first the possible looting of artworks and making use of the artists’ precarious situation under German occupation. Second, the post-war history of these paintings will be used to discuss issues related to them as objects of remembrance, forgetting, or silencing: Whereas the ways, how the paintings were acquired, were ignored in family memory, they served as objects for supporting the social status of the generation of my grandparents. Third, intergenerational aspects of the family memory will be addressed regarding the question, how the paintings were dealt with as objects of memory in the household of my parents. As conclusion will be discussed, how the objects and their included history can be preserved.

After the civic-military dictatorship in Chile, the transitional justice process opened spaces for condemnation and reparation, allowing the crimes committed by the State to be made visible. However, the persistence of impunity and the inefficiency of institutional mechanisms allowed the past to remain present in the lives of many people who demand truth, memory, and justice. In this context, the descendants of people involved in crimes of the dictatorship must confront an unresolved legacy, which manifests itself in their bodies, their family ties, and their subjective experiences, which continues to affect how they inhabit their memory, their present, and their heritage. Studying the descendants of criminals of the dictatorship allows us to understand a part of the past that has been under studied but is relevant for understanding the effects of the dictatorship within family circles and how it is extrapolated to the national scene. The following investigation explores the experiences of these descendants through interviews and ethnographic observations, identifying key aspects of their connection to the past. In the first place, it analyzes transgenerational debt as the experience of impunity and the transmission of family crimes. Secondly, it addresses the marks the body bears, understanding the space where heritage is embodied, remembered, and transformed. Thirdly, it uses the term "family rootedness" to understand how descendants connect to their heritage through cultural practices and norms that reinforce belonging to the family group but also generate tensions and contradictions in relation to the past.