Mémoire de la survie et survie de la mémoire

• Main Author: Maria Thanopoulou
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centre d'Études Balkaniques 2017-07-01
• Series: Cahiers Balkaniques
• Subjects: Survival in the War; Memory survival; Memory of WWII; Oral memory; Memory retention; Memory transmission
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/ceb/8473

This paper refers to the existing interdependence between the Memory of survival during the War and the survival of this Memory. It emphasizes that it’s not possible to deal with the Memory of survival without dealing in the same time with the crucial issue of survival of this Memory. With, as example, the oral Memory of two generations of survivors of WWII in a rural community of Lefkada, one of the Ionian Islands, the paper develops this idea in three points. First, it deals with the Memory contents, how it safeguards the different devices used to survive the restrictions imposed by the Occupying Italians (1941-1943). After that, it focuses on the fact that the here presented Memory of the survivors is only one Memory among many, and a reconstruction of these devices during our oral inquiry in 1981 and 1982. Then arises a crucial question: who in the future will ensure the conservation of this Memory of survival after the death of the last witness? Finally this papers wonders if the conservation of Memory is a community affair or a scholarly matter left to professionals of Memory.