Paper short abstract:

My presentation is about the current memorial practices of French former prisoners of war and their descendants on the site of the former soviet prison camp of Tambov(USSR - World War II). How does a new experience of the place of Tambov and a new oral memory of the site emerge through their memorial practices?

Paper long abstract:

The aim of this ethnological study is to examine the current "Production of memories" about World War II in Europe. Focus will be drawn here on war prisoners in the USSR and especially the Alsatian-Mosellan's inmates (France) of the former prison camp of Tambov (These men were enlisted by force in the German army). Since these men were victims who could not be recognized as such as they had been on the side of the attacker, most of the survivors chose silence after the war, which signs an impossible neglect. Today, the living memory of these war experiences is disappearing together with the witnesses. However, since the 1990s journeys to the former prison camp in Tambov, called pilgrimages, have been organized by survivors. The purpose of this study is to analyze the actual memorial agitation taking place around the former Soviet prison camp of Tambov and to examine how a new experience of the place of Tambov is emerging through the memorial practices. The study material consists of interviews with the memorial actors and by conducting fieldwork observation of the memorial activities (pilgrimages, commemorative rituals). This will give us insight into how the different social actors are transcending their painful past experience and how they re-inscribe their suffering inherent from World War II in a contemporary European context. One interesting question to ask in this context is whether we are witnessing a reconciliation process here, engendered by the survivors of the camp themselves?