Memory at War: Blog: April 2011

05 April 2011

Sites of Forgetting II, by Andriy Portnov

Somewhat unexpectedly for me, my text about how a ‘Death Tower’ of a Nazi concentration camp for Soviet POWs was transformed into a five-star hotel in Lviv, published a week ago at the ‘History Lessons’ portal, in English translation on the 'Memory at War' collective blog, and in Ukrainian at Polit.ua, prompted a broad response. I received a great many letters and comments, and these have shaped the theme of this essay: the problem of reflecting on sites of forgetting.

About Memory at War

This blog, which originally emerged from the University of Cambridge workshop 'Research Methods in Eastern European Memory Studies' in December 2008, is part of the transnational and transdisciplinary project Memory at War: Cultural Dynamics in Poland, Russia, and Ukraine. The blog seeks to serve as an interactive site for students and scholars across disciplines who are interested in 'controversies of memory' and the cultural practices of mourning and commemoration in Eastern Europe.

Launched by Alexander Etkind and Rory Finnin of the Department of Slavonic Studies, University of Cambridge.

The project Memory at War is financially supported by the HERA Joint Research Programme which is co-funded by AHRC, AKA, DASTI, ETF, FNR, FWF, HAZU, IRCHSS, MHEST, NWO, RANNIS, RCN, VR and The European Community FP7 2007-2013, under the Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities programme.