Public History Rant

The Importance of TV, feature films and documentaries in reinforcing and rethinking national collective memory in post-war countries.
So this will be my very first blog on some issues that I have became interested in during my studies. I don't really know what to make of this but hopefully it will be an interesting read as well as being somewhere I can post my thoughts and feelings about certain historical issues!

If you didn't already know, collective memory is the memory of a group of people, passed on from one generation to the next. Now this seems straightforward, but collective memory concerning war-time events in Spain, France and obviously Germany have been somewhat suppressed by the involved generation. But in fairly recent years, the new generation has attempted to open up the wounds of the past, mainly through media such as documentaries or feature films.

So, in terms of France, the contentious issue that has been hard for many post-war Frenchmen to come to terms with is the issue of Vichy France. This is mainly due to the dubious issues that Marshall Petain undertook as French General during the war. Petain abolished the French Republic and implemented the unpopular National Revolution programme as well as issuing extremely controversial policies such as co-operating with Germany with the deportation of the Jews to Auschwitz and other camps. Clearly there is controversy here! These issues were somewhat covered up by the generation involved, due to embarrassment, but the new generation are keen to uncover the truth......

A propaganda picture of Marshal Petain from the Vichy regime

An influential film known as The Sorrow and the Pity has been significant in this 'uncovering'. The film by Marcel Ophuls is a two-part documentary about the French resistance and uses majorly interviews with officers, collaborators and resistance fighters, from a Town involved known as Clermont-Ferrand to try and unravel the truth. It was first broadcast in the USA in 1969, but not in France until ten years later, further illustrating that the French society were still reluctant to come to terms with what had happened under Petain. The intensity of the response to the film showed that the divisions in the French society were still huge even at this point.

The use of interviews within The Sorrow and the Pity and TV in general is useful in bettering an understanding of the past, as it clearly shows numerous viewpoints from 'real-life' people who were confronted and put under pressure to relive the past. It also portrays the TV and film can also be much more effectual than many literary works as no narrative can match these sorts of interviews, especially when the people involved are questioned at a time in the darkest hour of a countries history. It comes with no surprise that the reactions were so overwhelming following the film.

Once the Vichy regime had ceased to exist, the French society initially created a myth of the French resistance that allowed them to absorb this history much easier into their conception of French history and identity, which actually flattered the nation. The Sorrow and the Pity exposed, not this created mythological heroism of France, but instead their guilt and divisions during the regime. The film highlighted their Petainism during the regime along with Anti-Semitism and this was the first time anything like this had been made explicit. The Sorrow and the Pity thus obliterated this myth of France standing behind the resistance and was useful in uncovering and rethinking the past in this area, emphasizing the effectiveness of TV and film towards collective memory.

The Sorrow and the Pity film poster

The Spanish Civil War is another area which has been somewhat suppressed by the involved national generation. This is again due to surrounding controversy mainly due to the antics of Dictator Francisco Franco who came to power during the civil war as the generalissimo of the Nationalist side. A recent documentary, Death in El Valle, by Christina Hardt, the grandchild of a Republican fighter in the civil war, discovers the truth about her Grandfathers death. Through a number of confronting interviews and deep research she discovers that he was betrayed by a local villager to Nationalist forces and was shot by them following his arrest. The surrounding controversy was that this went against his death certificate, stating that he died of a lung hemorrhage. The target audience of this film is similar people to Christina who may also want to try and rediscover the past in more or less the same ways that she did. This shows the significance of documentaries in bolstering and rethinking national collective memory.

General Francisco Franco of Spain

Death in El Valle was further effective as it instituted legal operations to have sites excavated to find the remains of forgotten civil war victims, to identify and give them a proper burial service. The film is both engaging and provocative and although having clear entertainment value, it is important for national collective memory in Spain because it reopens the wounds of the civil war. The film further portrays the view of a keen younger generation in uncovering the truth about covered up past events, as opposed to the older, involved generation, who are heavily unenthusiastic to talk about the truth. The cautious and aggressive responses she receives in her interviews emphasize that even now, the memories of the civil war still haunt the Spanish society. This is similar to The Sorrow and the Pity in this aspect.

Death in El Valle DVD courtesy of www.deathinelvalle.com

Germany, as we all know, holds to most controversial recent past of them all, and there is no need going into a massive explanation of what it was... But, it terms of how TV or film could help reinforce and rethink this 'past that will not pass', a unique German fiction film, known as The Nasty Girl is quite important. The film is fictitious, but is based on many elements of truth and represents many real life representations of the past. The film involves the rediscovery of a young Germany girl named Sonja, based on the real life account of Anya Rosmus in the 1980's through an essay competition in which she decides to focus on her home town during the Third Reich. Her research leads her to uncover the controversial truth about her town during the Nazi regime and Sonja is led into a dark journey on her discoveries. The Nasty Girl is thus compelling as it reopens the wounds of the Second World War, (much alike the documentaries mentioned above) allowing viewers to reconsider war memories, helping to bolster the memory on the whole.

Whilst Sonja is researching for her essay through the use of archival sources, her attempts become increasingly difficult. Her pursuits of the sources are met with resistance at all levels throughout the community, for example important information being hidden in the 'poison cabinet' which she cannot access. This is a clear example of how dubious the past could be for many Germans and illustrates the hushing up of their questionable past. 

Once Sonja discovers the truth about her hometown, she is vindicated by the success of her published book and becomes a heroine, honored by the city for her efforts on discovering the truth, portraying that discovering the truth about past events is something to be proud of to the viewers. There are many similarities to the above mentioned documentaries through the use of confronting interviews with involved people.

The Nasty Girl DVD cover

There are numerous other significant TV and film, such as Schindler's List, No-Do, Hitler's Willing Executioners and even comedy Blackadder starring British comic Rowan Atkinson which could further help to reinforce and rethink national post-war collective memory, but I will save my ranting for another day and so you don't fall asleep! But it is clear that TV and film are vitally important in their effects on collective memory. It is widely agreed across the globe that film and television, whether fiction or documentary is a major source of historical knowledge. Films that touch upon contentious issues such as the above mentioned can be considered crucial in reopening the wounds of a contestable national past and TV and film on the whole are fantastic in rethinking and reinforcing collective memory.

Shaun James

Student, University of the West of England