Corpses of atonement: the discovery, commemoration and reinterment of eleven Alsatian victims of Nazi terror, 1947–52

Author(s):  
Devlin M. Scofield

In April 1947, a mass grave containing the bodies of 11 Alsatians executed by the Offenburg Gestapo in December 1944 was uncovered in Rammersweier. In the following days, the bodies were exhumed, placed in coffins and, after a two day vigil by local residents, solemnly and publically reburied after a two confessional service in the presence of school children and a wide cross-section of local and state authorities. A roadside memorial was constructed for the victims in 1948. The bodies of the murdered Alsatians played a central symbolic role throughout the process of exhumation, commemoration, and response to the later vandalism of the erected monument in their name. This chapter argues that the meticulous attention to the remembrance activities surrounding the reburial and memorialisation of the Alsatians and the intensity of the vandalism investigation demonstrates that Badenese officials were convinced that their responses contained a symbolic resonance beyond giving eleven more victims of Nazi terror a proper burial. In effect, contemporary Badenese authorities and their Alsatian counterparts came to view the dead bodies as representative of the larger crimes of the Nazi regime, particularly those perpetrated against the population of Alsace.

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 66-77
Author(s):  
Fathu Rahman ◽  
M Amir P ◽  
Tammasse

This research investigated the trends in reading literary fiction by students of Hasanuddin University and their main reasons for reading works of fiction. Reading tendencies were grouped into types, reading of fiction in print and fiction in electronic (cyber) media. The purposes of this study were: 1) to quantify the literary fiction reading media preferred by students; 2) to identify specific reasons for their choice of media; 3) to identify perceived personal benefits obtained from reading literary fiction, and 4) to evaluate readers’ personal choices in terms of contents. The majority of students preferred to read using electronic media (62%), although a substantial majority preferred the classical printed book format (38%). The reasons given for preferring cyber literature (defined as works of fiction presented in an electronic medium) to printed literature were mainly practical, such as ease of access using electronic devices (tablets, computers, smartphones, etc.) as well as capacity and versatility, and that one multi-functional device can hold many books or other reading media. This research indicates that young people view reading fiction not only as entertainment, but also as a valuable and rewarding activity. The trend towards electronic media provides a growing and increasingly used opportunity for casual readers and enthusiasts to access and enjoy a wide cross-section of literary fiction.


1873 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-35
Author(s):  
Charles Horne
Keyword(s):  

In the year 1857 one of the travelling Llamas from Llassa came to Lahoul, in the Kûlû country on the Himalêh, and hearing of the mutiny was afraid to proceed. Major Hay, who was at that place in political employ, engaged this man to draw and describe for him many very interesting ceremonies in use in Llassa, amongst which was the method there employed in disposing of dead bodies. This so exactly confirms the accounts given by Straboand Cicero, and is, moreover, of itself so curious, that I have transcribed it, with as many passages relating to the subject as readily came to hand; and as the Llama was a very fair draughtsman, I have had facsimiles made of his drawings to illustrate this paper. I will first give the extracts, and then the account of the Llama.


Polar Record ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas R. Stenton

AbstractOn 22 April 1848, after three years in the Arctic, and 19 months spent ice-bound in northern Victoria Strait, the 105 surviving officers and crew of the Franklin Northwest Passage expedition deserted HMSErebusand HMSTerroras the first step of their escape plan. They assembled at a camp south of Victory Point on the northwest coast of King William Island and made the final preparations for the next step, a 400 km trek along the frozen seashores of King William Island and Adelaide Peninsula to the Back River. All of the men died before reaching their destination, and their remains have been found at 35 locations along the route of the retreat. These discoveries have played a central role in reenactments of events thought to have occurred during the failed attempt to reach the Back River and to the disastrous outcome of the expedition. This paper presents a summary of these findings and examines the criteria used to attribute them to the Franklin expedition. It is suggested that approximately one-third of the identifications have been based on information that is inadequate to confidently assign the human remains as those of Franklin expedition personnel.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-49
Author(s):  
Amrita Ghosh

This essay studies two literary texts on Kashmir, The Collaborator (2011) by Mirza Waheed and Curfewed Night (2010) by Basharat Peer and analyzes the discourses of power, overt forms of violence that the works present. It first contextualizes events from the last three years that have occurred in Kashmir to present forms of violence Kashmiri subjects undergo in the quotidian of life. The essay, thus, argues that the selected literary works represent Kashmir as a unique postcolonial conflict zone that defies an easy terminology to understand the onslaught of violence, and the varied forms of power. As analyzed in the article, one finds a curious merging of biopolitics and necropolitics that constructs the characters as “living dead” within this emergency zone. For this, the theoretical trajectory of the essay is mapped out to show the transition from Foucault and Agamben’s idea of biopolitics to Mbembe’s concept of necropolitics. Thereafter, essay concludes how the two texts illustrate Agamben’s notion of the bare life is not enough to understand subjects living in this unique postcoloniality. The presence of death and the dead bodies go beyond bare life and shows how that bodies become significant signifiers that construct a varied notion of agency.


Author(s):  
Tiffany Jenkins

In October 2011, graphic images of a blood-stained and dead Muammar Gaddafi were sent around the internet. For some time after his death, his dead body was displayed at a house in Misrat, where masses of people queued to see it. His corpse provided a focus for the Libyan people, as proof that he really was dead and could finally be dominated. When Osama bin Laden was killed by the American military in May that same year, unlike Gaddafi, the body was absent, but the absence was significant. Shortly after he was killed a decision was taken not to show pictures of the dead body and it was buried at sea. The American military appear to have been concerned it would become a physical site for his supporters to congregate, and the photographs used by different sides in a propaganda war. Both cases reflect an aim to control the dead body and associated meanings with the person; that is not unusual: after the Nuremberg trials, the Allied authorities cremated Hermann Göring—who committed suicide prior to his scheduled hanging—so that his grave would not become a place of worship for Nazi sympathizers. These examples should remind us that dead bodies have longer lives than is at first obvious. They are central to rituals of mourning, but beyond this, throughout history, they have also played a role in political battles and provided a—sometimes contested—focus for reconciliation and remembrance. They have political and social capital and are objects with symbolic potential. In The Political Lives of Dead Bodies the anthropologist Katherine Verdery explores the way the dead body has been used in this way and why it is particularly effective. Firstly, she observes, human remains are effective symbolic objects because their meaning is ambiguous; that is whilst their associated meanings are contingent on a number of factors, including the individual and the cultural context, they are not fixed and are open to interpretation and manipulation: ‘Remains are concrete, yet protean; they do not have a single meaning but are open to many different readings’ (Verdery 1999: 28).


Author(s):  
Morwenna Ludlow
Keyword(s):  

This chapter shows how the technique of ekphrasis is used to provoke active responses in the audience: discernment, judgment, and decision. It begins with a series of passages from Plato’s Republic, in which the author invites his audience to gaze on corpses with a series of characters: Leontius, Gyges’ ancestor, and Er. By describing these encounters in highly visual language, Plato invites the audience to share the characters’ initial reactions (disgust, horror, amazement) and then their moment of krisis—judgment or discernment. I then show how the Cappadocians invite their audience to gaze with them on the dead bodies of saints and martyrs and the nearly-dead bodies of the starving. Again the motive is to provoke the audience to a moment of discernment, judgment, or decision.


2021 ◽  
pp. 291-307
Author(s):  
John Parker

This chapter narrates Agyeman Prempeh's return to Asante in 1924 from exile in the Seychelles. It unfolds how he had changed in the course of his 28 years in detention and repatriated as a private citizen, Mr Edward Prempeh. Two years later, having cemented a reputation among British officials as a progressive figure, he was appointed 'Kumasihene', head of the reconstituted Kumasi division of colonial Ashanti. That said, in his own mind and in those of his people, Agyeman Prempeh remained Asantehene. Despite his embrace of Anglicanism and colonial modernity, Prempeh was acutely conscious of this historical role and worked assiduously until his death to heal the wounds of the past and to ensure a reinvigorated future by attending to the dignity of the royal dead. The chapter examines his project, which took the form of three interconnected campaigns: to reorder the dominion of the dead in Kumasi; to rebuild the destroyed mausoleum at Bantama; and to repatriate the remains of those who died in the Seychelles and elsewhere. Together, they constitute a key episode in the political life of dead bodies in colonial West Africa.


Author(s):  
Rajeev Sharma ◽  
Geeta Choudhury

The case presents the situation prevailing in Loreto Day School, Sealdah, when Sister Cyril took over as the principal of the school. It details the initiatives taken by her to turn around the school. With her active interest and concern for marginalised children, the school started admitting a greater number of non - fee paying children, bringing their number to half of the total enrolled children in the school. Several programmes like providing shelter to street children and integrating them into the education system, weekly visits by school children to nearby village schools, addressing the problem of hidden child labour, programmes for platform children and training for barefoot teachers were organised along with other teaching and learning activities in the school. Pedagogic changes like activity oriented science teaching, value education, work education, and an assessment programme which took into account the effort put in by children were also initiated. Views of a cross-section of parents, some of whom had high praise for the school while some others expressed concerns about its divergent activities are also included.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document