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The Wednesday Documentary: Memory Wars

The Documentary: Memory Wars - Part One - Ghosts of Europe

Memory Wars - Part One - Ghosts of Europe

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Memory Wars - Part One - Ghosts of Europe

Can oral history challenge the official records of a nation's turbulent past?

Alan Dein explores how sometimes oral history collides with the official version committed to the history books - particularly in nations where the outcome is still bitterly contested.

History, it is often said, is written by the victors.

But oral history has - in its brief 60 year span - been firmly associated with the voices of the 'ordinary' citizen - a view of turbulent times from the bottom up.

It offers different versions of the unfinished business of the past, be it war, revolution or dictatorship.

In this two-part documentary Alan Dein explores how sometimes this oral history collides with the official version committed to the history books - particularly in nations where the outcome is still bitterly contested.

In Argentina, Memoria Abierta (Open Memory) has worked alongside human rights organisations since 1999 to recover the stories of those who survived the so-called ‘Dirty War’ of the 1970s and 80s.

The Italian historian Alessandro Portelli has been a vital figure in using oral history to challenge and amend the past both in his native country. His account of a single Nazi massacre in Rome in 1943 showed how the discipline could be crucial in reconstructing the meaning of historical events.

In Russia, the Memorial organisation has come into direct conflict with the authorities over its attempts to gather the voices of those who survived the Gulag and the repressive world of Stalin's Russia. In a nation where even now the history books still hover uneasily over both Stalin's legacy and the 'achievements' of Soviet times, the work of Memorial has proved troubling and unwelcome in official circles.

Both South Africa and Ireland have seen multiple oral history projects aimed at helping victims give voice to recent trauma and restore them to the mainstream of recorded history.

Often crucial in all these projects has been the training and empowerment of local voices, not just professional oral historians, to gather intimate and sometimes disturbing stories within their own communities.

Alan Dein hears voices of experience from across the globe and from those using oral history to challenge the past.

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