Silenced Memories and Network Dynamics in Holocaust Testimonies

The Matalon Family and Case of Greece

Authors

  • Kateřina Králová Charles University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.23777/sn.0222/art_kkra01

Keywords:

Holocaust, Greece, trauma, memory, silence, survivors

Abstract

During World War II, many Jewish survivors witnessed how their parents, spouses and children were being taken away to Nazi camps, some even saw them suffering till the end. Those who came back were hoping to find a peaceful haven and finally sit back with at least some of the family members. Their ties, however, were irrevocably disturbed. This article is focusing on one Jewish family from Thessaloniki, within which many of the three generations survived hiding in Greece while others were deported to Auschwitz. This created traumatic layers in the family memory (each of them on a different ground) often suppressed for decades to come. Dwelling on a rich archive of personal testimonies, I will bring closer these silenced memories within the traumatized family network stemming not only from the tragedy of the Holocaust but interplaying with the family dynamics.

Author Biography

Kateřina Králová, Charles University

Kateřina Králová is associate professor of Contemporary History and Head of the Research Centre for Memory Studies at the Institute of International Studies, Charles University (CUNI). Her work focuses on reconciliation with the Nazi past, the Holocaust, Greek Civil War, conflict-related migration, and post-war reconstruction. Králová, an alumna of Phillips University Marburg, has been awarded major international fellowships, including from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Vienna Wiesenthal Institute, and USHMM, as well as a Fulbright Fellowship at Yale University. She is the author of the book Das Vermächtnis der Besatzung on Greek-German relations since the 1940s (Böhlau, 2016; BpB 2017), as well as of numerous articles and volumes in Czech, English, German and Greek.

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Published

2022-12-18

How to Cite

Králová, Kateřina. 2022. “Silenced Memories and Network Dynamics in Holocaust Testimonies: The Matalon Family and Case of Greece”. S: I.M.O.N. Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation. 9 (2):51-66. https://doi.org/10.23777/sn.0222/art_kkra01.

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 2 (2022): S:I.M.O.N. – SHOAH: INTERVENTION. METHODS. DOCUMENTATION.

Section

ARTICLES

License

Copyright (c) 2022 Kateřina Králová

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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