The year 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. The brutal destruction, the tragedy of death, the wounds of survivors and the civilizational breakdown of the Holocaust and Nazi ideology of extermination have profoundly shaped our world. Current crises and conflicts reflect the complex heritage of WWII and its aftermath and alter historical perspective on the war’s end. The 80th anniversary comes at a critical juncture as we face the end of the post-Cold War world order. The promise of a new, more just world has vanished. Wars and conflicts mobilize military personnel and economic resources across the globe.
Three international conferences on the end of WWII in the context of complex global transformations will take place throughout 2025 in Berlin, Paris and New York, hosted by Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne University, Europa Universität Viadrina, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, and Columbia University.
The Berlin conference will focus on Germany and Eastern Europe, the Paris conference on colonial spaces and conflicts in North Africa and Asia and the New York conference on the institutional foundations of the post-war world order.
The conferences will examine the “culture of memory and commemoration,” the history of the memory of WWII, and also the fault lines, evolution, and new forms of remembering the war years. How have current conflicts altered our perspectives on the last year of the war and its aftermath? How does historiography address global and political challenges to established narratives? Who decides on valid interpretations, meanings, and memory? What frameworks go beyond national interpretations?
Key comparative themes include: The end of the war at a micro level ; demobilizations and the management of violence; victors and vanquished, victims and perpetrators; after victory: justice, revenge, and retaliation; post-war trials; support of victims of Nazism and war; violence and post-war conflicts; geopolitics and the new world order; “new” cultures of memory and commemoration of the war’s end.
We look forward to receiving innovative analyses, new ideas, approaches using new archival and visual materials. Conference organizers strongly encourage young researchers, doctoral and post-doctoral students to participate.
Travel costs, accommodation and meals will be covered for all presenters, expected to attend the entire conference.
Researchers interested in presenting at either the Berlin or Paris conference: Send 300 word proposals and a short biography to: conferenceseries4525@gmail.com by December 15, 2024. A separate call for proposals for the New York conference to follow in December 2024. Applicants will be notified by the end of January 2025.