Preliminary Programme

Wed 12 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Thu 13 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Fri 14 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Sat 15 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00

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Saturday 15 April 2023 08.30 - 10.30
X-13 ORA06 Oral Histories of Conflicts and their Aftermaths
Västra Hamngatan 25 AK2 136 (Z)
Network: Oral History Chair: Anne Heimo
Organizers: - Discussants: -
Ahmad Al-Adarbeh : Al-Dawymeh Massacre
The 1948 war is considered a qualitative event in the history of the Palestinian-Zionist conflict. The war destroyed the social, economic and political structure of the Palestinian people, uprooting approximately 849,186 Palestinians from their land and losing their property.
Research objective: This research aims to
1 Writing the Palestinian novel about the ... (Show more)
The 1948 war is considered a qualitative event in the history of the Palestinian-Zionist conflict. The war destroyed the social, economic and political structure of the Palestinian people, uprooting approximately 849,186 Palestinians from their land and losing their property.
Research objective: This research aims to
1 Writing the Palestinian novel about the massacre of the village of Al-Dawaima, which was committed by the IDF
Shedding light on the feminist narrative of massacre for massacre
Criticism of the Israeli narrative about the massacre .
Research Methodology: The oral history method will be used in this research through oral interviews with the people of the village and the villages surrounding Al-Duwayma. In addition to the reports of the committees of the United Nations and foreign consulates in Palestine during the 1948 war, the archives of the armies that participated in the war, and Israeli and Arab journalistic research and investigations.
The importance of the research :The importance of this research lies in that it tries to present the Palestinian version of the massacre in Al-Dawaima village, based on the story of the villagers and the Palestinian refugees from the surrounding villages, which have been obliterated, as the official Israeli narrative dominated, which still denies its occurrence despite the United Nations report confirming its occurrence. In this research, it gives importance to writing the history of the massacre by focusing on the gender narrative, which did not receive the required attention. For example, the villagers’ narrative denies the occurrence of rapes of women, but the Israeli historian Benny Morris, relying on the stories of the soldiers and the Israeli archive, confirms that the soldiers carried out rape.
Research problem: The process of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories in the 1948 war was accompanied by a number of massacres committed by the Israeli military organizations (Hagana, Watzel, and Lehi), which formed a basic starting point for the Zionist movement in the process of occupying Palestine, even if the Zionist establishment recognized and condemned the Deir Yassin massacre. For example, the evidence indicates that it exploited the Deir Yassin massacre to implement its goals and objectives. Hence the Al-Dawaima massacre, which in fact constitutes one of the episodes of the bloody series against the defenseless Palestinian people. The Al-Dawayima massacre took place on October 29, 1948, when the Israeli Defense Forces killed and slaughtered a large number of the villagers, most of whom were women, children and the elderly. The main question of this research is:
What is the Palestinian version of the Al-Dawaima massacre? Sub-questions arise from that
What is the feminist account of the Al-Dawaima massacre?
What are the criticisms of the Israeli version of the massacre? (Show less)

Riku Kauhanen : For Want of a Nail or Acceptance? Experiences and Memories of Carelian Internally Displaced People
The experiences of those who lose their homes because of war and have difficulties when finding a new one is difficult to comprehend. After Second World War hundreds of thousands of Finns had become internally displaced people (IDP) when they lost their homes and needed new ones, since major parts ... (Show more)
The experiences of those who lose their homes because of war and have difficulties when finding a new one is difficult to comprehend. After Second World War hundreds of thousands of Finns had become internally displaced people (IDP) when they lost their homes and needed new ones, since major parts of country were lost to Soviet Union in the peace process. Many evacuees had difficulties finding new homes and resettle, even though the state of Finland planned and financed rebuilding after the war.
This paper discusses the oral history, memoirs and objects of remembrance, and experiences of those evacuees, who were settled among Swedish speaking areas after the Second World War during 1944–1950. Aim of this paper is to represent and study oral history from same areas, that is gathered in different times and to observe, if there is continuity or chances in materials. Some official reports are used as comparison, but this is not to study if the informants’ memories are “true or false” but to give a wider perspective on memories of settling and adaptation of evacuees. Paper also discusses the different factors, that affected the settlementing of IDPs and their experiences. These factors are in many cases mentioned by evacuees themselves, but official records may and do focus on other matters when studying the adaptation of evacuees.
Experiences of Finnish internally displaced people of World War II have been gathered and published for long in Finland by many archives, associations, museums, and other such organizations. This recorded oral history and written memoirs cover both memories from lost homes and settling to new ones after the war. Resettlement was especially difficult in Southern Parts of Finland and certain parts of Ostrobothnia, where many municipalities had a Swedish speaking majority or were bilingual. Settlementing to these areas was limited with a special paragraph in legislation, which caused many grievances. On local level both co-operation and acceptance as well as shunning and discrimination can be observed.
Study shows that actual oral history, private memories, and experiences might differ greatly from official studies and repeated interpretations and that differences and change, as well as continuation, can be observed in materials during different decades after the war. Closer study and comparison of personal memories and contemporary documents also highlight how experiences differ from official stories, and how public memory exaggerates or falls silent certain aspects. This paper also sheds light on different factors of difficulties and opportunities of settlementing, which are still discussed today when immigration is considered. (Show less)

Michelle Mouton : Stories Told and Untold: German Memories of the Flight West at the End of the Second World war
Dieter P. was a five years old when soldiers from the Red Army overran the group he was travelling with on the trek west from East Prussia. They took his mother as a forced laborer leaving him alone with his grandfather on the side of the road that freezing January ... (Show more)
Dieter P. was a five years old when soldiers from the Red Army overran the group he was travelling with on the trek west from East Prussia. They took his mother as a forced laborer leaving him alone with his grandfather on the side of the road that freezing January night in 1945. When I interviewed him many years later, he told me about his mother’s disappearance and the years that followed without her. Rather than relying only on his own memory, however, he embellished his memories with the diary his mother kept while they were apart. When I interviewed Frau S., she read from letters her mother and grandmother had written one another after they separated to deepen the story she told. When I interviewed Verena W., she provided maps and diagrams to illustrate the path she, her mother, and her younger sister had followed west to enhance the story of their flight. By supplementing their stories with personal documents, maps, and photographs, my interviewees could tell both more than they can remember and more than they could have witnessed. And yet, these documents expanded the scope of the stories my interviewees could tell, but still left many topics untold. The paper I propose will explore how children remember the flight out of Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. It will pay particular attention to how children create the stories they tell using not only their own memories, but also subsequent history they have learned and personal and familial documents they have found. It will also consider what stories remain untold. The paper will be based on interviews I conducted with Germans who experienced the Second World War as children. (Show less)

Greta Paskociumaite : Memory of Lithuanian Anti-Soviet Partisan War: between Silence and Narration
The goal of the participants of the Lithuanian anti-Soviet partisan war (1944–1953) - the country's independence - was achieved only in 1990. About 20,000 thousand militants were killed in the fighting, and the number of comrades was twice as imprisoned and exiled. The repressions imposed by the Soviet regime not ... (Show more)
The goal of the participants of the Lithuanian anti-Soviet partisan war (1944–1953) - the country's independence - was achieved only in 1990. About 20,000 thousand militants were killed in the fighting, and the number of comrades was twice as imprisoned and exiled. The repressions imposed by the Soviet regime not only included physical punishment or psychological pressure, but essentially prevented official guerrilla narration, hindered the natural formation of post-war memory, and at the same time left great pain to guerrilla families. Involvement in the resistance was significant not only for the fighters but also for their family members. Most did not have the opportunity for personal choice, but suffered severe shocks due to the choices of loved ones. One of the biggest challenges is talking to the family about the experience. The presentation is based on the testimonies of partisan children about the memory of the struggle in the family. The aim is to find out how and what was said at home about partisan struggles, what identity was constructed in the eyes of relatives by former fighters, and what beliefs were passed on to children and grandchildren. The interaction of speech and silence is considered to be the main axis of memory. Attempts are made to know the boundaries of silence and speech, to highlight their impact on the attitude of loved ones towards resistance and the existence of a struggle for remembrance. The testimonies of partisan children were recorded in 2020-2022. (Show less)



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