TRANSGENERATIONAL TRAUMA AND FAMILY MEMORY? THE LEGACY OF SUDETEN GERMAN EXPULSION AFTER WORLD WAR II

• Authors: Kreisslová Sandra , Nosková Jana
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The forced displacement of the Sudeten Germans represents a crucial moment in the history of the Czechoslovakia after World War II. It was the largest migration wave in the history of the Czech lands. The experience of losing one’s home through forced migration gave rise to what is known as the “fate-bound community” of Sudeten Germans. In the aftermath of the war, particularly from the perspective of Western countries, this community forged a shared collective identity and culture of remembrance. While considerable attention has been devoted to the communicative and cultural memory of the so-called “generation of experience”, less focus has been placed on subsequent generations and the transgenerational transmission of traumatic experiences. In this study, we delve into the concept of “post-memory” and explore how families and generations of grandchildren perceive and process what can be termed “chosen trauma”. The study is based on biographic and semi-structured interviews conducted with 11 participants, all of whom are descendants of displaced Sudeten Germans. The findings suggest that the repercussions of ancestral trauma are transmitted to the grandchildren’s generation primarily via a succession of dominant emotional responses and affects, rather than through comprehensive understanding of the ancestral history.

Keywords

EN

POST-MEMORY; TRAUMA; FAMILY; NARRATIVE; FORCED MIGRATION; SUDETEN GERMANS; CZECH LANDS; WORLD WAR II

• Publisher: Institute of Ethnology, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Slovenský národopis (Slovak Ethnology)
• Year: 2024
• Volume: 72
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 344 – 361

Contributors

author

Kreisslová Sandra

• Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Puškinovo náměstí 447/9, 160 00 Prague, Czech Republic

• https://orcid.org/%280000-0001-5383-4883

author

Nosková Jana

• https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6832-515X

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31577/SN.2024.3.27