Global memory approaches to the 1945 liberation of the Holocaust survivors by the Red Army as an ultimate rescue from Nazi terror or a Hollywood-style "happy ending". The "happy ending" survival myth has been routinely prioritized for educational purposes since the end of the war. The concepts of renewal and starting from Year Zero in the post-1945 era have been one of the main underpinning assumptions of important oral testimonies' collections such as the Visual History Archive. This project offers a more nuanced interpretation of liberation as a grey zone by exploring individual and local history and short-term and long-term memory of liberation. In particular, this research contextualizes the Soviet Army liberation as Jewish victims as the moment of displacement and violence as an exclusionary process after "liberation".
Does this research involve place-based activities in the Athabasca region? (yes/no)