This doctoral thesis deals with West German and Italian public memory of a specific wartime episode on the Greek island of Cephalonia. In September 1943, soldiers of the Wehrmacht, the regular German army, committed mass executions on up to 4,000 Italian prisoners of war. The thesis also analyses the mutual reception of the memory discourses in West Germany and Italy and examines the possibility of an interaction between their participants. The thesis uses the case study "Cephalonia" to expose how West German and Italian society came to terms with the past of the World War II in the period from 1943 to 1989. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

This paper explores the role of images in facilitating debates on the responsibility of convicted war criminals. Previous research on the mediation of war crime trials in Serbia has mainly focused on political and media discourses or everyday practices as verbal or textual modes of communication, showing the dominant nationalism and widespread denial, with convicted war criminals appearing as heroes and celebrities. This article argues that the normalization of convicts was partially realized through the avoidance of atrocity images and the prevalence of iconic images of convicts, who are described as persons “freed by the court.” The paper explores two instances when iconic images of convicts served as catalysts in debates on their criminal responsibility, pointing out that images might limit the scope of the debate, and condition the type of questions posed. Archival atrocity images, on the other hand, might provide much-needed context and evidence about crimes. Considering the powerful role of images, the article urges a more systematic analysis of images in the transitional justice field, as some of the images turn into symbolic presentations of the past for future generations.

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Thesis (doctoral)--Universiẗat Hannover, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 143-154).

Thesis (doctoral)-Freie Universität, Berlin, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 350-399) and index.