➡️ HITLER’S BIRTH HOUSE IN AUSTRIA TO BE TURNED INTO POLICE STATION (The Guardian, August 2023).

"Critics say controversial plans will fulfil dictator’s wish for building to become district authority offices".

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/22/hitlers-birth-house-in-austria-to-be-turned-into-police-station

➡️ THIS OLD HOUSE: AUSTRIA TORN OVER WHAT TO DO WITH HITLER’S BIRTHPLACE (Politico, September 2020)

"Earlier this summer, the Austrian interior ministry released the winning architectural design for the site […]. The ultimate goal of these changes is to “neutralize” the history and symbolism of the house, officials said, preventing it from serving as a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis in the future."

https://www.politico.eu/article/this-old-house-austria-torn-over-what-to-do-with-hitlers-birthplace/

➡️ A LONG LEGAL BATTLE OVER HITLER'S BIRTH HOME IN AUSTRIA ENDS (NPR; August 2019)

"For generations, Gerlinde Pommer's family has owned the yellow, three-story structure in Braunau am Inn".

https://www.npr.org/2019/08/06/748588026/a-long-legal-battle-over-hitlers-birth-home-in-austria-ends

#NegativeHeritage #Hitler #Nazi #History #Heritage

@academicchatter
@Denying_History
@histodons

"‘No more cover-up’: Nazi concentration camps on Channel Island finally to be officially investigated" by Martin Bright and Antony Barnett.

"It has been established that at least one transit of hundreds of French Jews was housed in one camp on the island having been transported there from the Drancy transit camp in Paris, where Jews were rounded up and sent on to Auschwitz during the German occupation of France".

"Professor Anthony Glees, security and intelligence expert and formerly adviser to the war crimes inquiry in the Home Office, told the Observer that the Pickles investigation is vital. “I would be surprised if the numbers killed by the Nazis either in Alderney or transported from Alderney on to extermination camps in Europe did not run into thousands,” he said".

#TheGuardian #ChannelIsland #ConcentrationCamps #Nazi #WW2 #Archaeology #WarCrimes #NegativeHeritage #Heritage

@academicchatter
@archaedons
@histodons
@histodon
@Denying_History

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/22/nazi-atrocities-jews-prisoners-war-alderney-channel-island-uk

#Negativeheritage can refer to places that are linked to historically painful, atrocious and/or disturbing events. They are ambivalent, as they are material testimonies of these events, but they are also rejected by a majority of society and need to be re-signified or, in more extreme cases, their destruction may be demanded. An interesting example of re-signification is the case of the #Kongresshalle, an example of #Nazi #architecture in #Nuremberg. For the creation of a Documentation Centre to show the horrors of Nazism, the building was not reconstructed, but left unfinished with the red brick exposed. In addition, a new structure was built on top of the building, placed perpendicularly, so as to simulate a "glass and steel stake" that is running through the building (Sharon Macdonald, 2006).
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13527250500384464

#CulturalHeritage #History
@academicchatter
@Denying_History
@histodons

https://artsandculture.google.com/story/the-documentation-center-nazi-party-rally-grounds/jgVxkVfHk444Jw

Image: Stefan Wagner (CC BY-SA 2.0 DE) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentation_Center_Nazi_Party_Rally_Grounds#/media/File:Reichsparteitagsgelaende_Kongresshalle_Doku_48.JPG)

What to do with #NegativeHeritage? Some ideas from #Canada.
▶︎Guidance for Practice on Colonial Statues and Memorials Sites" (2021): "Interventions have been and will continue to be carried out on public colonial statues with paint, messages, objects, symbols, and tools. For many, these materials and actions are now part of the physical, conceptual, and historical integrity of these objects".
#ColonialStatues #Memory #FirstNations #Heritage
@academicchatter
@histodons
https://rwgcacaccr.wixsite.com/mysite/residential-schools-statues-memorials

#ARTNews "New Bill in Florida Would Allow Civilians to Sue When Confederate Monuments Are Damaged or Removed" by Karen K. Ho
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/proposed-legislation-florida-sb1096-civilians-lawsuits-damage-removal-confederate-monuments-1234665451/

On the fight against Confederate monuments and the GOP counteroffensives I recommend "Smashing Statues" by Erin L. Thompson (2022) and "No Common Ground" by Karen L. Cox (2021).

#ConfederateMonuments #Heritage #ContestedHeritage #NegativeHeritage #SmashingStatues
#NoCommonGround
@academicchatter
@histodons
@sociology

A rather curious book is Where is Franco? by Julia Schulz-Dornburg (2022). In this book she tells the story of her journey through Spain to locate the 9 equestrian statues of Franco. Several are stored in museum warehouses or in such curious spaces as an abandoned university in Zaragoza. One of them is in Melilla, in the courtyard of a private foundation, the Gaselec Foundation.
#NegativeHeritage #Francoism #History #ContestedHeritage
@academicchatter
@histodons
@Denying_History

An never-ending process of resignification of Franco's largest monument: the valley of Cuelgamuros (formerly the Valley of the Fallen). It puts the focus back on the problem of what can be done with #NegativeHeritage especially when it is very important in historical terms, but it is impossible to move it, store it in a warehouse or change its meaning just with an explanatory plaque.
#Fascism #Francoism #History
@academicchatter @histodons
@Denying_History
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/23/body-of-spains-fascist-party-founder-to-be-removed-from-basilica

@court I fully agree. And let's hope that other countries, such as Spain, will also work in the same direction. #Slavery #History #NegativeHeritage #Spain https://euideas.eui.eu/2022/02/18/the-end-of-self-delusion-challenging-slaverys-heritage-in-spain-and-catalonia/

“King Charles signals first explicit support for research into monarchy’s slavery ties
Buckingham Palace makes public statement after Guardian presents evidence of royals’ long history of involvement in transatlantic trade”. @Denying_History @histodons #NegativeHeritage #History #Slavery #TheGuardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/06/king-charles-signals-first-explicit-support-for-research-into-monarchys-slavery-ties

Some toots on #NegativeHeritage coming soon. For those who are curious about such a strange concept, you can start with Lynn Meskell's article "Negative Heritage and Past Mastering in Archaeology": "a conflictual site that becomes the repository of negative memory in the collective imaginary".
You can read it at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236716737_Negative_Heritage_and_Past_Mastering_in_Archaeology
#Heritage #Archaeology @histodons @academicchatter @anthropology @Denying_History