Doors will open at 13:30, allowing time to grab a cup of coffee or tea before taking a seat.

Welcome words by:

Rémi Praud, Managing Director of the LRE Foundation

Eugenio Giani, President of the Tuscany Region

Keith Lowe, British Writer and Historian (Moderator)

The Ukrainian lands saw some of the most traumatic events during the Second World War and its aftermath. In his keynote lecture, the Ukrainian historian Georgiy Kasianov describes how use and abuse of memory of this war have resulted in a new standoff in the region, in Europe and globally.

Featuring:
Prof. Georgiy Kasianov, Head of the Laboratory of International Memory Studies at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University – Lublin, Poland

Nationalism played many different roles during the war, among both perpetrators and liberators. But how does our present-day nationalism colour our memory of that conflict? Are there parallels between the nationalism of the 1930s and 40s and that of today?  Is a sense of national belonging essential to a proper understanding of the war? Does our national pride allow us to connect to the past in a deeper, more meaningful way – or does it prevent us from examining the past objectively and self-critically?  If nationalism were somehow eliminated from our memory of the war, what would that memory look like?

Featuring:

Dr. Áron Máthé, Committee of National Remembrance – Budapest, Hungary
Prof. Guri Schwarz, Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Genoa
Dr. Jade McGlynn Department of War Studies, Kings College – London, United Kingdom
Prof. Kees Ribbens, Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies – Amsterdam, the Netherlands

A 15 minutes break to grab a cup of coffee or tea

In recent years, memories of the Second World War have become increasingly politicised across Europe. In this discussion, three current or former museum directors describe the intense pressures they have experienced to tell the story of the war in particular ways. How much of this pressure should be embraced, and how much resisted? And, crucially, how do we ensure that the memory of the war is used constructively, and not abused?

Featuring:
Dr. Gundula Bavendamm, Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion and Reconciliation –  Berlin, Germany
Prof. Paweł Machcewicz, Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences –  Warsaw, Poland
Dr. Kaja Širok, School of Humanities, University of Nova Gorica, Slovenia

To round off the conference we will hear from the great niece of one of the worst war criminals of the Second World War. Katrin Himmler will speak about the difficulties of breaking the silence within her own family, the importance of taking responsibility for the past, and resisting the urge to forget.

Featuring:
Katrin Himmler, German Author and Political Scientist

Closing remarks

End of the LRE Conference 2023