What is ‘needed’ to keep remembering? War‐specific communication, parental exemplar behaviour and participation in national commemorations

Abstract

Given the abundance of literature on collective memory practices, there is relatively little empirical research on the socialization processes explaining the transmission of such practices. This article examines to what extent war‐specific communication and parental exemplar behaviour function as a link between the collected memories of individuals and society's collective memory. Utilizing data from an online survey conducted in 2014, we focus on participation in the activities organized on Remembrance Day and Liberation Day in the Netherlands in remembrance of the Second World War. We distinguish between public and private practices. Our findings highlight that different forms of socialization substitute for one another. Whereas communication with non‐relatives is particularly relevant for those communicating less frequently with parents about past war experiences, parental exemplar behaviour, such as participating in the two‐minute silence on Remembrance Day, plays a bigger role amongst those with lower levels of communication with either relatives or non‐relatives.

The post‐war generation remembers: A mixed‐method study exploring children’s attitudes towards World War II commemoration

“…What experiences do children have with WWII commemoration and how important is it for them to commemorate? In line with prior research (Coopmans et al, 2016(Coopmans et al, , 2017De Regt, 2019), we expected that children had experience with WWII commemoration, associated with family involvement and prior lessons about commemoration at school, and rate the commemoration as important. 2.…”

“…Four research questions were formulated: What experiences do children have with WWII commemoration and how important is it for them to commemorate? In line with prior research (Coopmans et al, 2016, 2017; De Regt, 2019), we expected that children had experience with WWII commemoration, associated with family involvement and prior lessons about commemoration at school, and rate the commemoration as important. What reasons do children give to engage in, or disengage from commemoration? Literature gives insights in possible reasons to commemorate but, to the authors’ knowledge, no research has investigated the reasons from a child's point of view in the Dutch context. Which forms of commemoration, for example which specific rituals or elements, are valued by children?…”

“…Lastly, most children had strong opinions about how a commemoration ‘ought to be’. This outcome can be further understood by the importance of socialization processes, such as parental exemplar behaviour, in the transmission of commemorative behaviours (Coopmans et al, 2017; Pennell & Sheehan, 2020). The ‘right atmosphere’ was linked to feelings of sadness, dignity, and respect.…”

This Ain’t No Place for No Hero: Prevalence and Correlates of Representations of Victims, Helpers, and Perpetrators During the Time of National Socialism in German Families

“…It should be interesting to investigate such changes for the time of National Socialism in German collective memory between communicative and cultural memory (Assmann, 1992), but also other events and eras that are collectively remembered in Germany and elsewhere. We strongly encourage large-scale studies on family representations in other cultural contexts and how they are transmitted in families (for a study in the Dutch context, see Coopmans et al., 2017) or in historical education (for a collection of psychological obstacles in the German and Polish context, see Bilewicz et al., 2017).…”

National Days, National Identity, and Collective Memory: Exploring the Impact of Holocaust Day in Israel

“…The actual ways in which national days impact people's national identity have been understudied. Recent studies employing different approaches have begun exploring this issue by looking at national identity from below (Coopmans et al, ; Coopmans, Van der Lippe, & Lubbers, ; Fozdar et al, ). However, few studies have explicitly tested the impact of national days on national identity (Ariely, ; de Regt, ), and none to date have examined the impact of national days on collective memory.…”