Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Informants
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- Introduction: Persisting Pasts in the Margins of Europe
- Part 1 The Making of Estonian History
- Part 2 The Meaning of Closure
- Part 3 Closure and a Significant Other
- Conclusion: Guardians Of Living History
- List of Informants
- Full Reference List
- Index
6 - WWII on the Periphery of Europe: A Contested Chapter
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Informants
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- Introduction: Persisting Pasts in the Margins of Europe
- Part 1 The Making of Estonian History
- Part 2 The Meaning of Closure
- Part 3 Closure and a Significant Other
- Conclusion: Guardians Of Living History
- List of Informants
- Full Reference List
- Index
Summary
Abstract
Chapter 6 introduces Europe as a significant Other to the stage, and with that the memory of WWII. In times of East-West memory clashes in Europe, the emotional Estonian story easily stirs up feelings of insecurity, facing the perceived hegemonic and incontestable European WWII narrative. The lack of a Holocaust memory and the memory of Estonian men in SS uniforms as freedom fighters evokes the fear of being misunderstood and subordinate within Europe. They feel torn between the moral obligations towards their (grand)parents and their wish to be seen as ‘full Europeans’. Within the European family the lack of closure and of a settled Estonian history makes the struggle with ‘European memories’ feel very unequal, painful, and vulnerable.
Keywords: European memory, memory of World War Two (WWII), moral obligation towards (grand)parents, competition of victimhood, memory and power, lack of a Holocaust memory
A bus from Latvia had come to pick me up in Tartu that morning. It was late July 2010. This was a time of long sunny days, and short nights. After a three-hour drive from the south of Estonia to the north-east, we were approaching our destination: the commemoration site Sinimäed (‘Blue Hills’). In 1944, important battles between the Nazi and Soviet army had taken place here. The Nazi army, supported by thousands of Estonian soldiers, had managed to halt the Soviet offensive, enabling 80,000 Estonians to flee to Western countries (Salo, 2005, p. 19). I was invited to this ‘very interesting commemoration’ by one of the organizers of the national ‘Day of Mourning’ in Tartu. After spending hours writing emails, I eventually managed to find a ride on this private, Latvian bus: one half filled with Latvian teenagers, the other with Latvians interested in history. It would have been impossible to reach the site using public transport since it was far from any major urban centre and close to the Russian border in northeastern Estonia.
I guess I was naïve not to consider my attendance at this commemoration before leaving Tartu. Even while approaching the parking lot at the entrance to Sinimäed, I was not fully aware of the situation I got myself into.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Guardians of Living HistoryAn Ethnography of Post-Soviet Memory Making in Estonia, pp. 289 - 322Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2020