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Exhibition “ 14-18 , it is our history !” poster
Can memory transmit political values ?
In 2014 , in a large survey study entitled Memory to come , more than 31,000 young people aged between 16 and 29 , citizens of 31 different countries , mostly from the European Union , were asked about their attitudes to memory and the future 1 . Ninety per cent of them declared that “ knowing the history of the Second World War makes it possible to avoid the errors of the past , prevent it from happening again ”; they also agreed with the statement that knowing this history allowed them to “ learn to respect those who are different from us ” and “ help the victims ”. Among the respondents , 83 % said they thought concentration camps sites should be preserved . The main reason given for this was the need to “ avoid it happening again ”. Conversely , they rejected the proposition that “ it is the past , we have to put it behind us and forget ”. Comments by ordinary European citizens are concordant with this , whether they are collected from visitors to memorial museums or during interviews on attitudes towards the past conducted outside any interaction with memory policy tools . In other words , most Europeans agree that public reminders of past collective violence are important in order to pacify societies , to lessen the attraction of
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Fondation pour la mémoire de la Shoah and the Fondation pour l ’ innovation politique ; results and discussion ( in French ) Mémoires à venir . Enquête internationale réalisée auprès des jeunes de 16 à 29 ans dans 31 pays , 2014 , http :// www . fondapol . org / wp-content / uploads / 2015 / 01 / MEMOIREaVENIR-RESULTATS-A2-BD2 . pdf
EUROPE INSIGHT
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