Continued Violence and Troublesome Pasts

In most European countries, the horrific legacy of 1939-1945 has made it difficult to remember the war with much glory. Despite the Anglo-American memory narrative of saving democracy from totalitarianism and the Soviet epic of the Great Patriotic War, the fundamental experience of war for many Europeans was that of immense personal losses and often meaningless hardships.

This volume focuses on these histories between the victors: on the cases of Hungary, Estonia, Poland, Austria, Finland, and Germany. The chapters underline the asynchronous transition to peace in individual experiences, when compared to the smoother timelines of national and international historiographies. The role of these ’in-between’ countries adds to the comparative European history of the aftermath, thereby challenging the conventional dichotomies and periodisations in national historiographies.