EUROPE INSIGHT
The international spread
of state interventionism
in history and historical
memory
Georges Mink
Institut des Sciences Sociales
du Politique (CNRS), College of
Europe (Natolin Campus)
E
uropean Union countries have been developing new systems for managing conflictual
pasts, and new uses of history and representations of historical memory have
been manifesting themselves. Public policies for legally and normatively framing
historical memory are multiplying across Europe. Policies originating from memory-
driven issues and causes at a national level are often elevated to an international frame so
as to amplify externalization benefits. In Poland, where the representation of the Second
World War constitutes a major internal issue, embassies have even been instructed to file
lawsuits against foreign media who, either by negligence or deliberately, speak of Polish
concentration camps instead of German camps on Polish soil. “It is our duty to contradict
myths that are harmful to Poland. If we do not, we Poles will leave ourselves open to future
accusations of all kinds of misconduct without knowing the price [my italics] we will have
to pay for them” (1).
But it is in France where this net of legal controls is tightest. Its internal and external
effects are many. After the Gaysot Law of July 13, 1990, punishing denial of the Shoah
(negationism), the French passed the memory law of January 29, 2001, recognizing the 1915
genocide of the Armenians by the Turks—a decision not without diplomatic consequences.
The Taubira Law of the same year recognized slavery and the slave trade as a crime against
humanity, opening up a new space for what may be called historicizing actions, including
lawsuits, between France and its former colonies. Not to mention the majority decision
of French members of the Parliament (MEPs) to inscribe a mention of the beneficial—
Most recent work by the author: La Pologne au Coeur de l’Europe, de 1914 à nos jours, histoire politique et conflits de mémoire, Paris,
Buchet Chastel, 2015; expanded translated version in Polish, Cracow, Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2017.
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Observing Memories
ISSUE 2