ARCHIV-VERSION Dokserver des Zentrums für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam e.V. http://zeitgeschichte-digital.de/Doks Zeina Elcheikh Remembering 10 June. Curating Memory in Lidice und Oradour https://doi.org/10.14765/zzf.dok-1776 Archiv-Version des ursprünglich auf dem Portal Visual-History am 09.06.2020 mit der URL: https://visual- history.de/2020/06/09/remembering-10-june/ erschienenen Textes Copyright © 2020 Clio-online – Historisches Fachinformationssystem e.V. und Autor/in, alle Rechte vorbehalten. Dieses Werk ist zum Download und zur Vervielfältigung für nicht-kommerzielle Zwecke freigegeben. Es darf jedoch nur erneut veröffentlicht werden, sofern die Einwilligung der o.g. Rechteinhaber vorliegt. Dies betrifft auch die Übersetzungsrechte. Bitte kontaktieren Sie: Für die Neuveröffentlichung von Bild-, Ton- und Filmmaterial, das in den Beiträgen enthalten ist, sind die dort jeweils genannten Lizenzbedingungen bzw. Rechteinhaber zu beachten. VISUALHISTORY Online-Nachschlagewerk fürdie historische Bildforschung REMEMBERING 10 JUNE Curating Memory in Lidice and Oradour The Nazi occupation of large parts of Europe destroyed cities, tow ns, villages and entire landscapes. Every year on 10 of June, the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane commemorates the massacre that transf ormed the village into a scenery of ruins. The day has a resonance of death and horror in the Czech village of Lidice alike. Lidice, 10 June 1942 A mong the atrocities committed by the Nazis during the Second World War Lidice remained an unusual case. The non-Jew ish Czech village, located 22 kilometers northw est of Prague, w as the target af ter Czech resistance f ighters seriously injured Reinhard Heydrich in an assassination attempt on May 27, 1942. “Operation A nthropoid” w as the code name f or the attack on the high-ranking German SS and police of f icial w ho served as deputy Reichsprotektor in Bohemia and Moravia. In retaliation f or the death of Heydrich on June 4, Lidice w as burnt dow n and razed to the ground on June 10. Only a f ew ruins remained scattered in the silent landscape: the f oundations of a f arm, the church of St. Martin and a f ormer local school. The men w ere immediately shot and the w omen sent to concentration camps. The children of the village, w ho w ere considered capable of being “Germanized”, w ere sent to German SS f amilies, and the others w ere murdered. Postcard showing Lidice before and after the massacre (Zeina Elcheikh). The massacre and destruction of Lidice w as one of the f irst Nazi atrocities the w hole w orld could know about. The devastation w as documented in details, as Jessica Rapson describes: “The Nazis f ilmed every step of this destruction as a training f ilm – Folgende Beiträge könnten Sie auch interessieren: 9. Juni 2020 Zeina Elcheikh Thema: Zweiter Weltkrieg Rubrik: Fotothek Zeitgeschichte 1 von 7 the shootings, the burning of bodies and homes, all evidences of a tow n burned into oblivion, plow ed under. A training f ilm to help others learn to leave no traces behind.”[1] The eradication of the village and most of its inhabitants w as a demonstration of the pow er, control, and supremacy of Nazi Germany. It w as a w arning. How ever, the echo of the bloodbath triggered (re)actions and solidarity. British poster commemorating the village of Lidice. Source: Wikimedia Commons public domain Immediately af ter the massacre, new s of the devastated village reached a group of miners in Stoke-on-Trent (UK). They sympathized and identif ied themselves w ith the people of Lidice: a group of miners like themselves, w ho lived in a rather modest rural area. The miners of Stoke-on-Trent organized the f undraising campaign “Lidice Shall Live” to f acilitate the rebuilding and resettlement of the survivors. A lmost immediately af ter the end of the w ar a new Lidice w as built overlooking the site of the old village. “The Silent V illage” (1943) is a British short f ilm directed by Humphrey Jennings and inspired by the Lidice massacre. The f ilm w as shot in a similar mining community as Lidice: the village of Cw mgiedd in Wales. In the same year, 1943, the Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů, w rote his musical w ork “Memorial to Lidice”. The f irst monument to Lidice w as erected in 1945. In the early 1950s the f irst museum w as opened. On the 20th anniversary of the massacre in 1962, a new museum w as built f ollow ing the design of the architect František Marek. The exhibition tells the f ate of the village and its residents. A rose garden w as created by the group of “Lidice Shall Live”, and w as established as a garden of peace and f riendship.[2] In the late 1960s, the Czech sculptor Marie Uchytilová, initiated the “Memorial to the Children of Lidice”. By depicting the 82 children of the village (42 girls and 40 boys), she w anted to pay tribute to the young victims of the w ar. Uchytilová died in 1989, leaving her w ork unf inished. In the 1990s, donations w ere organized to continue w hat she had started. The f irst statues w ere installed in Lidice in 1995, and the last one on 10 June 2000. 2 von 7 Memorial to the children of Lidice overlooking the site of the massacre. Photo: Dezidor, Čeština: Lidice 2011. Source: Wikimedia Commons, Licence: Dezidor CC BY 3.0 The Lidice massacre is remembered in several places and in various f orms. Tow ns, neighborhoods, buildings and streets w ere renamed “Lidice” in several countries. Memorials w ere built as w ell in Wisconsin (U.S.A ) and in the Wallanlagen Park in Bremen (Germany). In 2017, 75 years have passed since the tragedy. On this occasion the English composer V ic Carnall w rote his Opus 17 “In Memoriam: the V illage of Lidice”. Oradour-sur-Glane, 10 June 1944 Saturdays w ere of ten busy in Oradour, a small village in the department of Haute- V ienne in w est-central France. June 10, 1944 seemed to be no exception: shopping f or f ood and grocery, going to the barbershop, and chatting w ith the neighbors. A medical check w as even scheduled f or the af ternoon at the local school. How ever, by midday, the w ay lif e used to be in Oradour-sur-Glane w ould change f orever. The 2nd SS-Panzer Division “Das Reich” reached the village at noon, and 150 soldiers blocked the entrance to the village. The curtain of time w as draw n over Oradour, and an act of atrocity began. On the next morning, one could still see smoldering houses, f arms and shops. Oradour-sur-Glane w as reduced to blackened stones, charred remains and ashes. A mong the Nazi crimes, the massacre of 642 w omen, children and men of Oradour on 10 June 1944 w as one of the most notorious. 3 von 7 Postcard from August 1949 (Zeina Elcheikh). Among the stamps, one reads “Oradour S/GL, 10 Juin 1944, souviens-toi, Remember”. A commemorative sign with the inscription “souviens-toi, remember” is located at the entrance of Oradour. In 1945, there w as a need f or a symbol f or a resistant France, w hich had been partially destroyed by the barbarity of the Nazis. A f ter the visit of General Charles de Gaulle to the ruins in 1945, a special legislation w as passed in 1946 designating the village as a historic monument. The w ay the ruins have been preserved is a model f or “ultimate victimization”, as Sarah Farmer argues: “a peacef ul French tow n, uninvolved in any resistance activity, destroyed and murdered its inhabitants.”[3] Without involving the f ew survivors in the decision to turn the site into a memorial, Oradour-sur-Glane became the martyr village of France: a sacred place belonging to the French nation. 4 von 7 Postcard showing Oradour after the massacre (Zeina Elcheikh). In 1947 Pablo Picasso painted “L’enf ant d’Oradour”. It w as most likely the portrait of Roger Godf rin, the only child (almost 8 years old) w ho survived the massacre. In 1984, the English w riter David Hughes w rote his novel “The Pork Butcher”, based on the massacre of Oradour-sur-Glane. The novel w as f ilmed in 1989 under the title “Souvenir”, directed by Geof f rey Reeve. In 1999, the French President Jacques Chirac inaugurated the “Centre de la mémoire d’Oradour”: a memorial museum located near the entrance to the ruined village. The museum hosts personal items of the victims, w hich w ere recovered f rom the ruins. In September 2013, German President Joachim Gauck and French President François Hollande visited the ruins of Oradour-sur-Glane. It w as the f irst time that a German politician had been on the site of one of the inf amous massacres committed by the Nazis in France during the Second World War. Postal stamp from the GDR commemorating Oradour-sur-Glane, showing the monument to the 642 victims of the massacre. Concluding Thoughts June 10 is a day of commemoration in memory of the massacres of Lidice and Oradour-sur-Glane. The people in both villages suf f ered f rom the terrible atrocities committed by the Nazis. Whereas the perpetrators w ere determined to document and propagate the annihilation of Lidice, they tried to limit the public discussion about the massacre in the French village. In Lidice and Oradour, new villages w ere built to relocate the survivors. 5 von 7 Physical remains can evoke an understanding of the past and its history. A bsence and silence can do the same. The ruins in Oradour are an authentic part of the commemorative landscape. On the other hand, the lack of physical remains in Lidice – except f or a f ew visible f oundations – led to other alternatives of remembrance in the silent scenery. Betw een moving on and looking back, 10 June in Lidice and Oradour- sur-Glane w ill keep curating memory in absence and ruins. People walking through the landscape where Lidice once stood. Photo: PeterBraun74, Lidice Memorial, 23 June 2018. Source: Wikimedia Commons, Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 Preserving the ruins of Oradour led to the freezing of time in the remains of the village. With the time passing, weathering washed away the blackened stones and vegetation spread through the ruins. Photo: Gvdbor, Oktober 2004. Source: Wikimedia Commons, Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0 [1] Jessica Raspon, Topographies of Suf f ering: Buchenw ald, Babi Yar, Lidice, New York 2015, 153-154. [2] Raspon, Topographies of Suf f ering, 143. [3] See Sarah Farmer, Martyred V illage: Commemorating the 1944 Massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane, Berkeley 1999. 6 von 7 Zitation Zeina Elcheikh, Remembering 10 June. Curating Memory in Lidice und Oradour, in: V isual History, 09.06.2020, https://visual-history.de/2020/06/09/remembering-10-june/ DOI: https://doi.org/10.14765/zzf .dok-1776 Link zur PDF-Datei Nutzungsbedingungen f ür diesen A rtikel Copyright (c) 2020 Clio-online e.V. und A utor*in, alle Rechte vorbehalten. Dieses Werk entstand im Rahmen des Clio-online Projekts „V isual-History“ und darf vervielf ältigt und veröf f entlicht w erden, sof ern die Einw illigung der Rechteinhaber*in vorliegt. Bitte kontaktieren Sie: 7 von 7