The Memory of World War II in Eastern Europe

Historical Legacies and Contemporary Debates

A workshop of the research project carried out within the TANDEM CNRS-SAV program developed by the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV), the CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences (CNRS SHS), and the French Research Center for Social Science Research (CEFRES).

Project principal investigators: Petra Hudek and Thomas Chopard

Date: November 10, 2025
Location: French Institute in Bratislava, Sedlárska 7, Bratislava
Language: French

The program will be accompanied by a guided walking tour of Bratislava on Sunday 9 November in the evening.

10.30 – 11.00: Opening
Nicolas SURAN (Ambassador of France to Slovakia)
Mateusz CHMURSKI (Director of the French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences in Prague)

11.00 – 13.00: Curating the Past. World War II in Museums and Exhibitions

Maria KOBIELSKA (Jagiellonian University)
WW2 in Polish Historical Museums: From Securing National Memory to Exploring Mnemonic Frictions  

Ewa TARTAKOWSKY (Institute of Social Sciences in Politics, Paris Nanterre University)
Two Uprisings, Two Memories? Political, Museographic, and Educational Uses of the Warsaw Resistance (1943–1989)

Thomas CHOPARD (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Paris)
Artefacts, archeology and museography in Holocaust Killing Centers Museums in Poland

13.00 – 14.00: Lunch break

14.00 – 16.30: Remembering the Past. World War II in Monuments and Rituals

Jan HLAVINKA (Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences)
Memory, Space and Society: Public Commemorations of the Holocaust in Slovakia

Marie ČERNÁ (Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague)
Mobilizing Compatriots and “Friends of Russia”: Contemporary Russian Interest in Soviet War Memorials in the Czech Republic   

Petra HUDEK (Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences)
World War II Monuments and the Politics of Memory in Czech and Slovak Contexts

Melinda HARLOV-CSORTÁN (Apor Vilmos Catholic College & Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences)
Remembering World War II in the Public Spaces of Budapest

The workshop is organized by:

French Institute in Bratislava
French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences in Prague (CEFRES)
Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV)
French National Research Center (CNRS)