Veterans

Sub-study 4: ‘Veterans’
Currently in progress by the Netherlands Veterans Institute (NLVi)

This study asks different generations within veteran families about the memories, stories and images of the Second World War that live with them, and how they themselves experience freedom and unfreedom. It examines how memories of the war past of the (grand)parent (veteran) carry over to subsequent generations and how the collective social awareness and handling of a particular war past influences the memories of different generations.

With the Veterans sub-study, the Netherlands Veterans Institute contributes to the multi-year research of the National Committee 4 and 5 May, in which other remembrance communities are also surveyed.

The research project ‘War and freedom in three generations’ runs from 2021 to 2025. One or two sub-studies will be carried out each year. Each substudy focuses on a different memory community within which five families are interviewed each time. The interviews cover three different generations; in addition to the war generation itself, representatives from the second and third generations are also spoken to separately.

With this study, the committee aims to investigate how memories of (grand)parents’ wartime past carry over to subsequent generations and how family stories form in practice.

Does social awareness and collective handling of a particular war past (e.g. recognition, denial, concealment or disinterest) influence the memories of the different generations and the family stories that are passed on? Do these war memories influence views on or perceptions of freedom? And how do younger generations position themselves within this memory landscape?

Sub-studies

Sub-study 1: ‘Labour deployment
Sub-study 2: ‘Dutch East Indies/Indonesia’
Currently in progress

Sub-study 3: ‘Roma and Sinti
Currently in progress

Sub-study 5: ‘Jewish families
Currently in preparation