Will the Germans Ever Be Forgiven? Memories of the Second World War Four Generations Later

Abstract

In general, memory is perceived as the mental faculty that permits individuals to acquire, retain and retrieve knowledge related to their own personal experiences and forms an important part of individuals’ identities. The concept of collective memory involves the assumption that both groups and societies have memories (Halbwachs, 1950/1968) and subsequently, that the collective memory of a society (for example, represented by museums and memorials) forms an important part of a society’s culture. A relation is assumed between collective and individual or personal memory by which individuals’ memories of events may conflict with the larger society’s representations of the same events, and by which different subgroups within a diverse society may represent or remember common experiences differently. The purpose of the present study is to discuss the relationship between collective and personal memory and attitudes towards others on the basis of studies conducted with Dutch children and adolescents.

Historical phenomena are like stones, which, when thrown in the pond of memory, create increasingly wider circles in proportion to their weight (von der Dunk, 1990, p. 7).