Rewriting history and fighting racism
Audio 19:30
Beata Szydlo, August 25, 2017. Agencja Gazeta / Slawomir Kaminski via REUTERS
By: Juliette Gheerbrant Follow
23 mins
Memorial conflicts are increasing across Europe, often at the initiative of increasingly powerful nationalist movements.
This is the case in Spain around Francoism, for example.
In Poland, it is the country's attitude during World War II that has been the subject of debate recently.
(Replay)
Publicity
The controversial appointment
to the Auschwitz Museum Council
of Beata Szydlo,
vice-president of the ultra-conservative Law and Justice party in power, the PIS,
triggered the resignation of 4 members of the Council, who denounce a politicization of the body
by the government. This is a report from our correspondent
Sarah Bakaloglou
.
In the Balkans,
Croatia and Serbia have embarked on a vast rewrite of their WWII history in recent years
. Zagreb tries to minimize the crimes of the Ustasha regime, an ally of the Nazis, while Belgrade rehabilitates figures of collaboration. Objective: to erase memories of the struggle of anti-fascist partisans.
Simon Rico's
explanations
.
Germany recorded in 2020 a record number of crimes committed by the extreme right
, this was announced by the German Minister of the Interior in early May 2021. These offenses, which range from Hitler salute to murder, have experienced a 5.7% increase over one year. Everywhere,
activists are rising to contain the spread of racism, among them Irmela Mensah-Schramm, 75
, who crisscrosses the country. A portrait of
David Philippot.
These are images of exceptional historical value that a prisoner from Prague shot in the Beaune-la-Rolande camp, anteroom to the death camps during World War II
.
Czech Pavel Engelmann was among thousands of Jews arrested in the so-called “greenback” roundup in Paris in 1941, and he managed to get a camera into the French camp before being deported to Auschwitz.
This year, his descendants allowed the Shoah Memorial in Paris to show his film.
The story of
Alexis Rosenzweig
.
*****
Cultural venues have finally reopened in Europe!
With the exception of a few regions, museums, cinemas and theaters once again welcome the public.
A brief overview of European museums, with Daniel Vigneron, from the myeurop.info site
.
© myeurop.info/
Program originally aired on May 27, 2021
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Second World War
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Culture
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Germany
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