There’s no escaping that history I’m afraid. Best thing is to confront it, tell the truth, contextualise it. In the UK we have countless streets, public buildings and spaces named for men from our imperial past with all that entails. I don’t support name changes or pulling down statues; that just makes the iconoclasts feel better about themselves for a moment. Rather tell the story of the name, tell the truth for good or ill. There is just one problem. I’m neither historian nor academic and history is, as they always say, complicated. And the general public don’t like nuance. Good article Katja.
No doubt this will rumble on , always a tricky decision, I’m not really that happy when history gets buried or in some cases banned , years ago I visited monuments park in Moscow , they’ve put all their contentious statues in it ( I’m not suggesting the same for hitler ) so there are solutions and whatever the decision is it won’t please everyone, I’ve always found it puzzling that 2 of the biggest mass murderers in modern times we’re in fact both foreigners themselves, the other being Stalin who was born in Georgia 🇬🇪,
Unfortunately you cannot escape history although the place of birth just happens to be an accident. Somehow it needs to be confronted and dealt with and not swept under the rug. I visited Nuremberg several years ago and they do a good job of that.
Thank you as always Katja. We who are in our 60’s , “Cold War Kids”, saw Austria as never being able to deny Hitler, but never accept their role in WW II atrocities carried out by him. We need work like yours to remind the coming generations. I passed this on to both my sons 31 and 27 years old and always willing to learn. I appreciate you and your work!
There’s no escaping that history I’m afraid. Best thing is to confront it, tell the truth, contextualise it. In the UK we have countless streets, public buildings and spaces named for men from our imperial past with all that entails. I don’t support name changes or pulling down statues; that just makes the iconoclasts feel better about themselves for a moment. Rather tell the story of the name, tell the truth for good or ill. There is just one problem. I’m neither historian nor academic and history is, as they always say, complicated. And the general public don’t like nuance. Good article Katja.
A clarification there are people who are unequivocally undeserving of recognition and that should be removed from the public realm.
No doubt this will rumble on , always a tricky decision, I’m not really that happy when history gets buried or in some cases banned , years ago I visited monuments park in Moscow , they’ve put all their contentious statues in it ( I’m not suggesting the same for hitler ) so there are solutions and whatever the decision is it won’t please everyone, I’ve always found it puzzling that 2 of the biggest mass murderers in modern times we’re in fact both foreigners themselves, the other being Stalin who was born in Georgia 🇬🇪,
Unfortunately you cannot escape history although the place of birth just happens to be an accident. Somehow it needs to be confronted and dealt with and not swept under the rug. I visited Nuremberg several years ago and they do a good job of that.
Thank you as always Katja. We who are in our 60’s , “Cold War Kids”, saw Austria as never being able to deny Hitler, but never accept their role in WW II atrocities carried out by him. We need work like yours to remind the coming generations. I passed this on to both my sons 31 and 27 years old and always willing to learn. I appreciate you and your work!