Oral History Intergenerational Transmission
Time: 2025-09-19 09:00 - 10:30
Location: Large Hall B at Auditorium Maximum
Chairman: James Deutsch
Events within this Session
A Gift from Gwich’in Elders to Future Generations
Type: session | Language: English
Time: 09:00 - 10:30
Abstract
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established in Canada as a result of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the largest class-action settlement in Canadian history. The purpose of the commission was to facilitate reconciliation among former students, their families, communities and all Canadians. From 2007 to 2015 the TRC heard testimony from over 6,500 witnesses. In June 2015, the TRC presented an executive summary of their findings which included 94 ‘Calls to Action’ or recommendations to further reconciliation between Canadians and Indigenous Peoples. This presentation will showcase a project that incorporates some of the recommendations. Gwich’in language teachers selected eight short stories from the larger corpus of Elders stories that appeared in the book ‘Our Whole Gwich’in Way of Life Has Changed / Gwich’in K’yuu Gwiidandài’ Tthak Ejuk Gòonlih Stories from the People of the Land’ by Leslie McCartney and Gwich’in Tribal Council (2020). Each short story was selected to teach children about their Elders, Gwich’in heritage, culture, values and principles. From the oral history collected from the Elders for this book, McCartney rewrote them aimed at children between the ages of 6-12 years. Gwich’in translators translated the stories into two dialects. The books will be used in the local schools as part of the Gwich’in language teaching curriculum. A Gwich’in artist provided the illustrations for the books. These books demonstrate ways oral history can be used to fulfill a few of the Calls to Action put forth by the TRC by developing Indigenous culturally appropriate curricula, protecting the right to teach and learn Indigenous languages by way of preservation and revitalization in a project led, and mostly conducted by, Gwich’in members. These are the kind of histories the Gwich’in want to tell and pass on to future generations.
Speakers
How Uncle Alphonse’s Survival Became a Familiy Secret. Intergenerational Memories of Relatives of Patients in Nazi Psychiatry
Type: session | Language: English
Time: 09:00 - 10:30
Abstract
In their memories, the sisters Brigitte and Geneviève Glanzmann (born in 1953/1959) look back on a normal family life in the post-war period in Alsace/France. In their childhood, they spent a lot of time with their grandparents and their mother told them about the bombings during the last days of the war. They only knew the name of their uncle Alphonse (1895-1970), who lived in a psychatric institution. In 2020 they learnt that he escaped a Nazi killing centre – his survival had become a well-kept family secret. The biography of opera singer Luise Reuss (1911-2000) is different. She lost her mother in the killing of the sick in 1940 and became a patient herself. The single mum was able to confide in her son Folker (born in 1947) and told him about the loss that shaped her life. Unlike the survivors of the Shoah, the survivors of the Nazi euthanasia programm did not become contemporary witnesses due to continued stigmatisation. Today, the third generation of the affected families are tracing their family history in a often painful but healing process and are willing to give interviews. The article explores the intergenerational aftermath of Nazi euthanasia and asks how families deal with the experiences of this marginalised group. Brigitte and Genevieve now act as contemporary witnesses. They see it as a “late but peaceful revenge” and an attempt to acknowledge their uncle as a respected member of their familiy.
Speakers
Oral Histories of the Dead: Life Stories, Archaeology and the Arts as Methods for Discovering and Representing Montreal’s Back River Cemetery
Type: session | Language: English
Time: 09:00 - 10:30
Abstract
Founded in 1883, Back River Memorial Gardens is one of the oldest continually operating Jewish cemeteries in Canada. Located in Ahuntsic, a French-Canadian neighbourhood in Montreal, it is far from the local Jewish community. Its history is poorly known due to a lack of record keeping, and the disappearance of many burial societies that once cared for it. Most local Jews do not know it exists, yet in Ahuntsic, it is highly visible but little understood. The history of Back River speaks to stories of Jewish migration to the city, challenges in integration, and relations with the French-Canadian majority. This paper explores the methodological challenges and opportunities of historicizing and representing a place and a story shrouded in mystery. We treat the cemetery as a monument to the history of Jewish migration in Montreal, representing the space between what Ashkenazi Jews left behind in Europe and their contemporary community today. Our reflections revolve around two questions: how can you make sense of what you do not, and cannot, know? And how do you tell a story of not knowing in ways that multiple publics, Jewish and non-Jewish, can connect with? This work has involved oral history interviews with anyone who has encountered the cemetery: people who have worked on it, people with family buried there, and people who live nearby. Unlike usual oral history interviews, where the focus is on capturing people’s rich memories, these interviews are coloured by not knowing, which we argue involves a more dialogic and participatory process; a process of searching for crumbs, together, and building meaning out of them. Bringing oral histories into conversation with deep mapping and visual arts has allowed for a deep exploration of ambiguities and how to represent this place, emphasizing incompleteness as a key part of this story.
Speakers
Narrative Biographical Interviews and Knowledge Production in the Context of Intergenerational Transmission of War Memories
Type: session | Language: English
Time: 09:00 - 10:30
Abstract
This paper focuses on the intergenerational transmission of war memories among families of those who lived through the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, (1992- 1996) and those who fled during war. This project explore the current state of memories and intergenerational transmission among Bosnian families, assess the degree of shift in content or emphasis and provide an up-to-date analysis of the social and political implications as a new generation emerges with different historical and political sociological and emotional needs and priorities. This project provides new insights into the relationship between social memory transmission and social and geographical contexts, such as homeland and diaspora (Bloch, 2015; Munro, 2016; Yordanova, 2018). The aim of this research was to explore the intergenerational transmission of the memory of war among families living in the EU and US Bosnian diaspora, more specifically those who experienced war in Bosnia and fled to the USA and EU countries with their children who were born and raised in Western countries. It is about the ways in which experiences of conflict and forced displacement are communicated within families, and it is also about the ways in which children engage with these memories and transform them. This paper provides a methodological overview and findings based on interdisciplinary literature on the subject of intergenerational transmission of war memories among families. In this research, the primary data involve a biographical narrative interview, according to Schütze, with the first generation of participants and semi-structured interviews with the second generation of their descendants. Over 27 months, I collected fifty-nine (59) interviews in Bosnia, the EU countries, and the USA. The main focus of this paper is to discuss how it was beneficial to use biographical narrative interviews in the context of potential trauma-sensitive topics, knowledge production, and ethical considerations. Narrative biographical interviews enable researchers to explore how a person’s life course is embedded in larger historical, social, and political structures and frameworks. Also, the interviewer’s professional background in clinical psychology advanced research in many ethical considerations.