Historic memory main issue of fierce controversy in SpainBaltasar Garzón, the international renowned judge who at one time had the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet arrested, is suspended from office. An investigating magistrate with the Audiencia Nacional, a special court competent to deal with terrorism, corruption and organised crime, he has allegedly abused his authority as a judge by opening an inquiry into the crimes of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the consequent dictatorship of general Francisco Franco (1939-1975). Three far right radical pressure groups, among which the remainder of the Francoist Falange party, filed a lawsuit against Garzón which was declared admissible by the Supreme Court of Spain and which was felt as an insult and a painful humiliation by the organisations who had worked hard for the restoration of the historic memory and for atonement for the victims of Francoism. |
Moscow posts part of Katyn massacre documents onlineWednesday 28 April 2010, the Russian government published seven 'top secret' documents, some twenty pages in all, on the website of the national archives (www.rusarchives.ru/publication/katyn/spisok.shtml). The texts concern the massacre of about 22,000 officers and other members of the Polish elite by the Soviets in the spring of 1940 in Katyn, but also in Kalinin (today Tver in Russia), Kharkov (Ukraine) and other places in Ukraine and White Russia.Read more... |
Gottfried Benn in Belgium“went to battle, stormed Antwerp, lived in the etappe, resided a long period in Brussels, where Sternheim, Flake, Einstein, Hausenstein passed their days. (…) what I produced in the form of literature, I wrote (…) in the spring of 1916 in Brussels. (…) a totally isolated post, lived in a requisitioned house, eleven rooms, alone with my servant, was rarely on duty, (…), no responsibilities, no ties, hardly understood the language; roamed the streets, strange people; a peculiar spring, three totally incomparable months, the never-ending gunfire at the Yzer, life passed in an atmosphere of silence and desolation, I lived on the edge, where existence ends and the I begins. I often think of those weeks, they were “the life”, they will not return, everything else was rupture” (1).Read more... |
Henri Storck, the Belgian Cinema and the OccupationIn August 2006, a controversy broke loose in the Francophone media in Belgium. Henri Storck, the 'father of Belgian cinema', was accused of having been in close association with the German authorities during the occupation. Ever since the awe-inspiring film Misère au Borinage (1933), Storck was generally regarded as a film maker with left sympathies. The controversy that followed mixed fulminations and anachronisms with little room for the nuances, paradoxes and complexities of society. A thorough enquiry seemed in order. It was entrusted to historian Bruno Benvindo. This book (to order, click here) is the result of his research. Read more... |
La triplette en couverture de “Bruxelles sous l’Occupation” dévoile ses secretsLa parution du premier volume de la série “Villes en guerre” nous permet aujourd'hui de retracer l'histoire de cette photo, ou plus précisément de cet étrange vélo. Un des cyclistes photographiés, Georges Paumen, s'est en effet reconnu sur le cliché et a eu l'excellente idée de nous contacter pour nous narrer ses souvenirs de guerre liés à cet engin.Read more... |
Le CEGES recruteUn responsable d'équipe TIC (h/f). |
Enfants nés de père ennemi pendant la Seconde Guerre mondialeDans la lignée de ses recherches entamées en septembre 2007 (voir Bulletin précédent), notre correspondante Gerlinda Swillen livre, dans un ouvrage publié en septembre 2009 en néerlandais aux éditions Meulenhoff/Manteau, le témoignage de 70 'enfants de guerre' 'belges', femmes et hommes nés de mère belge et de soldat allemand en 1940-1945. C'est la première fois en Belgique que ces personnes particulièrement marquées par la guerre s'expriment publiquement. Read more... |
Une résolution du Sénat demande au CEGES une étude scientifique sur l'assassinat de Julien LahautEn sa séance plénière du 18 décembre 2008, le Sénat a adopté à l'unanimité une résolution demandant au gouvernement de confier au Centre d'études et de documentation Guerre et Sociétés contemporaines la réalisation d'une étude scientifique sur l'assassinat du dirigeant communiste Julien Lahaut, abattu le 18 août 1950. |
