Memory Cultures of War in European War Museums

Mass Grave Exhumation Sites as Agonistic Fora:

“…The last wave of exhumations, which started in the year 2000, was mostly led by the grandchildren of those defeated in the war. Yet, far from being homogeneous, the contemporary "historical memory" social movement has to be understood as an ongoing, uneven and even contradictory process where there are multiple political and memorial sensibilities, and where the different memory modes exposed by Cento Bull and Hansen (2016) oftentimes appear entangled or in relational ensembles.…”

“…Although all civic memorial Associations are influenced by the cosmopolitan paradigm, some blend it with more antagonistic approaches, while others may at times play with modes of remembrance and political action more readily associated with the agonistic mode. Thus, one crucial point raised by the study of the exhumations in Spain is that oftentimes the antagonistic, cosmopolitan and agonistic elements, as described by Cento Bull and Hansen (2016), appear largely entangled in different configurations. For example, the two main Associations in Spain are Foro por la Memoria (Foro) and Asociación para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica (ARMH).…”