The Russian occupation of Ukrainian territory since 2014 has highlighted the enduring impact of 20th-century experiences and legacies of occupation in Europe. These historical episodes remain central to national memory cultures, often sparking debates and conflicts that persist today. Despite the extensive body of historical research delving into the complexities and ambiguities of these events, such discussions frequently exacerbate tensions. Beyond individual case studies, there is still a need for a deeper understanding of the distinctive features of modern occupations and their effects on social, economic, and political dynamics. At the crossroads of history, sociology and even anthropology and folklorism, this conference aimed to rethink wartime occupations between past and present, from the First World War (WWI) to Russia's war in Ukraine, with the purpose of producing a new conceptual framework for the study of actors and their experiences under occupation. By bringing together an interdisciplinary and international group of researchers, the organisers of this conference have offered a high-quality space for thinking and exchanging, around nineteen interventions divided into six panels.

After opening speeches by Klaus Oschema, Director of the German Historical Institute, and Masha Cerovic , one of the organisers, TATIANA TÖNSMEYER (Wuppertal) started the conference while presenting a keynote entitled “Re-considering Occupation. On how it impacted upon societies and individuals during Second World War (WWII)”. Considering occupation not just as a military operation, but as a primarily civilian experience, she defined occupation as a social process setting new dynamics, based on norms and rules of the occupiers on the occupied society. The daily experience of hunger that characterizes the German occupation of European societies is part of the hierarchization of populations between Eastern and Western Europe, and materializes in black markets and queues. These represent the new social order resulting from the imposition of new racial norms, in a “high-gendered space”.

In line with the keynote the first panel explored notions of intimacy, subjectivity and personal experience under wartime occupation, drawing on intimate sources and personal narratives: dreams and diaries. Folklorist OKSANA KUZMENKO (Kyiv) focused on dreams and their narrative structures and shows that deep social upheavals strengthen the connection between oral traditions and personal narratives as people seek meaning in life and traumas through the storytelling of their dreams. Following this approach of subjectivities, Ukrainian historian VIKTORIA NAUMENKO (Kharkiv) presented her research into the history of everyday life in German-occupied Kharkiv, based on a renewed analysis of the diaries and family archives of Ukrainian physician, physicist and anthropologist, Lev Nikolaev. These sources provide an insight into physical and psychological life under occupation, with German and Soviet violences, daily antisemitism and changes in his critical worldview. Moreover, diaries can be considered as a reservoir for facts but also for emotions and cultures, a rich source for studying and questioning past and present occupations. EMMANUEL DEBRUYNE (Louvain) examined the reasons for writing diaries and their uses for historians, based on a study of personal writings during the German occupation of Belgium (1914–1918). Far from being an elitist activity, the practice of writing under occupation was triggered by the war, as much to remember and bear witness, as to resist, survive and challenge the occupier with one's thoughts. DEBRUYNE pointed out, however, that diaries are also a way of self-knowledge and of social sharing in absentia, which enables historians to capture the diversity of sensitivity, perceptions of norms and society in different social groups. In this perspective, COLINE GERARD (Louvain) gave a presentation based on seventeen diaries written by Belgian citizens under German occupation. She presented a case study of how Belgian women who had intimate relations with German soldiers were perceived and ultimately excluded from the Belgian “suffering community”. These collectively punished women call into question the categories of “occupiers” and “occupied” and the meaning of being Belgian under occupation.

The next two panels dealt with occupations as spaces of mass violence, first considered from the angle of social responses to state violence, beyond victims and bystanders. ALEXANDRA PULVERMACHER (Klagenfurt) presented the case of the perception and reaction of the local society regarding the dying conditions in the Prisoners of War' (PoW) camps in Reichskommisariat Ukraine, where 800.000 PoWs starved to death between summer 1941 and summer 1942. Drawing on correspondences from German authorities and ego-documents, Pulvermacher showed how the Ukrainian population activated solidarity of all kinds (food, shelter, clothes, medical care) towards the PoWs, despite their own destitution and repression. CORA BOUCHEE (Paris) then presented her paper on the fate of nomadic people and especially women in occupied France in WWII. She underlined that the actions and extreme violences of German authorities against nomadic people were intertwined with the French authorities' will to forcibly assimilate Romani people through institutions like school, church and justice. To conclude this panel, sociologist OKSANA MIKHEIEVA (Lviv) exposed a critical reflexion on the concept of “human security”, in its political, personal, economic, sanitary, environmental and security-related declinations. Based on numerous interviews conducted in 2023 with Ukrainians who lived under Russian occupation, Mikheieva showed that human insecurity in times of occupation not only threatens the here and now but also creates inseparable losses and deteriorates social life, with the impossibility of restoring the previous “normality”.

The third panel featured two methodological studies on witnesses and justice in occupations, as spaces of mass violence. Historian ALEXANDER WATSON (London) opened this panel with the problem of testimonies and memories in investigations on war crimes committed by the Russian army in East Prussia during WWI. The institutions responsible for post-war investigations were confronted with the traumatic memories of soldiers, and the need to disentangle the truth from the falsehood in their testimonies. Investigators, whether judges or historians, have to understand the complex sources of veterans' narratives, that intertwined cultural and social contexts with war traumas. SVITLANA MAKHOVSKA (Kiyv) continued this exploration of memories with a presentation on ethical considerations involved in an oral history project with the Chernihiv research Center for the anthropology of Russian-Ukrainian war. Makhovska examined the modalities of interviewing survivors of occupation, with the need to guarantee physical, psychological and legal security for both interviewees and interviewers.

The final day of the conference opened with a methodological discussion on the concept of occupation. Sociologist IOULIA SHUKAN (Paris) and historian MASHA CEROVIC (Paris) launched the discussion on interactions between history and sociology of occupations. History would help sociologists to understand the context, by historicizing categories, but also by going beyond the prism of the singularity of present-day events, and by allowing comparisons of experiences and actors. However, sociology would open up new perspectives for the historians of occupations, thanks to its focus on the present, and its ability to pay immediate attention to the collection of oral and written, personal and institutional sources. These exchanges have enabled a more in-depth examination of the definition of occupation, questioning the relationship to time of both actors and researchers, and the development of joint state-based and experience-based approaches.

The fourth panel of the conference was devoted to the study of material and media spaces in times of occupation. MISCHA GABOWITSCH (Mainz) and MYKOLA HOMANYUK (Kherson) presented their survey of war memorials in the context of Russian-occupied Ukraine. They outlined a typology of changes to war memorials. Since Ukrainian independence in 1991, memorials have been transformed, with the addition of colours, state and religious symbols, and personal plaques. Since 2022, memorials have become an issue for the Russian occupiers, who destroy monuments to Ukrainian heroes either deliberately or in bombing raids, while building monuments to the glory of Moscow, and even stealing some monuments considered Russian heritage. MANUEL MORK (Munich) then presented a study of communication practices in occupied France (1940–1944), revealing diverse and critical experiences, between adaptation and collaboration, opportunism and subversion. In particular, he approached the practices of sense-making in a context of censorship, through the rumours, anecdotal evidences, and prophecies and the collective reception and transmission of foreign radio contents. To conclude the panel, sociologist YULIIA SOROKA (Kharkiv / Freiburg) analysed discourses and representations in the context of the digitalized war between Russia and Ukraine. Since 2022, political and media discourses in Ukraine has included the topic of “unity for victory”. Soroka developed the case of the TV-show “Tykhyi vechir” (“Quiet evening”), which conveys the need for national unity against the enemy, through daily broadcasts of President Zelensky's speeches, the entertainment offered and the staging of friendliness and unity on the show's set.

The fifth panel dealt with economic policies and practices, and the questions of exploitation and survival. Historian SVETLANA SUVEICA (Regensburg) showed the competition between Romanian and German authorities for resources and food, as well as public opinion, in Transnistria (1941–1944). Focusing on the Golta district, she exposed the agencies of the local administrations and the Moldavian, Romanian and German populations, as well as the Jewish one deported from Romania. The latter find themselves in a mortifying situation due to constant competition for resources, jobs and reception capacities. Suveica also pointed out the presence of Nazi agricultural experts, responsible for improving and partly appropriating Transnistria's agricultural estates. The talk by historian MARGOT LYAUTEY (Berlin) focused on these “Landwirtschaftsführer” (“agricultural experts”), that were present in all Nazi-occupied territories during WWII, and that were introduced in France from 1943, following Germany's defeats on the Eastern Front and the Wehrmacht's growing need for supplies. Officially, these experts were advisors, responsible for passing on their knowledge in direct contact with farmers, but they also fulfilled a collection mission for export, sometimes involving physical violence. Historian NINA JANZ (Amsterdam) shifted the focus to forced recruitment and volunteer units in the Benelux countries during WWII. With an approach focused on non-German citizens in 1940 as actors, Janz presented the complexities of this categories through an in-depth study of their correspondence under a context of limited agency. To conclude this panel, GIORGIA CASTELLAN (Paris) exposed a case study on the eviction of inhabitants from a Paris luxury building complex by the German Kommandantur and the consequences thereof, in particular the relocation of the inhabitants. Castellan showed that the term “military requisitions”, used in this case, carries a deeper ambiguity, insofar as the German authorities cooperated closely with the Préfecture de la Seine in housing management and the organization of requisitions.

The sixth and final panel of the conference focused on institutions and socio-political transformations under occupation. DIETER POHL (Klagenfurt) opened this panel with a talk on the roles and places of church as a social organization in the Eastern European countries under German occupation (1939–1945). He showed that the Church and its representatives were treated and perceived differently in the occupied territories, both as victims of mass massacres in Poland, as members of the social elite, and as the focus of a religious revival in Ukraine and the Baltic States with the end of the Soviet occupation from 1939 or 1940. MORGANE LABBE (Paris) concluded this conference with a talk on charities and philanthropic initiatives in Łódź, German-occupied Poland during WWI. Based on the study of two organisations, the Women's Section and the Milk Section of the Citizens' Committee for the Relief of the poor, Labbe outlined how two local voluntary social welfare associations were impacted and transformed under wartime occupation, to ensure their mission to protect the most vulnerable, drawing attention to the needs of children.

To conclude the aim of this conference to bring together history, sociology and anthropology in their considerations on wartime occupations across Europe, from WWI to the Russo-Ukrainian War, has been undoubtedly and masterfully achieved. The wide variety of temporalities, sources and spaces is noteworthy, such as the exchanges and reactions to the presentation, that revealed the historiographical and conceptual contributions of this event on the occupation as an object of research in the process of being renewed. Between methodological discussions, theoretical proposals and case studies, the various presentations contributed to the emergence of new questions on the definitions of occupation, and concluded with the interest of interdisciplinary research in this field.

Conference overview:

Keynote

Tatiana Tönsmeyer (Wuppertal): Re-considering Occupation. On how it impacted upon societies and individuals during WWII

1. Intimacy, Subjectivity, and Personal Experiences of Wartime Occupation

Chairs: Masha Cerovic (Paris) / Sofia Dyak (Lviv)

Oksana Kuzmenko (Kyiv): “(Un)Life Under Occupation: ‘Prophetic Dream’ as Folkloric Symbolic Framework for Foreseen ‘Unlucky Fate’ in War”

Viktoria Naumenko (Kharkiv): Surviving Occupation Day by Day: The Wartime Diaries of Kharkiv Professor Lev Nikolaev, 1941-1943

Coline Gérard (Louvain): “Poules pour les [b]oches”: The Perception of Intimate Relationships Between Belgian Women and German Soldiers in Diaries in Occupied Belgium (1940-1944)

Emmanuel Debruyne (Louvain): “Cette simple chronique des sentiments inspirés par nos maîtres provisoires”: Writing a Diary Under Occupation in Wartime Europe, 1914-1918

2. Occupations as Spaces of Mass Violence

2.1. Social Responses to State Violence: Beyond Victims and Bystanders

Chairs: Lukasz Krzyzanowski (Warsaw) / Ioulia Shukan (Paris)

Alexandra Pulvermacher (Klagenfurt): The Mass Death of Soviet Prisoners of War in Occupied Ukraine, 1941-44: The Perception and Reaction of the Local Society

Cora Bouchée (Paris): French Decrees, German Procedures? A Case Study of Interned Nomadic Women in Occupied France

Oksana Mikheieva (Berlin): Human Security Under Conditions of War, Occupation, and Technogenic Disaster: Occupied Territories in the South of Ukraine

2.2. Witnesses and Justice

Chairs: Irina Tcherneva (Paris) / Artem Kharchenko (Kharkiv)

Alexander Watson (London): Russian War Crimes and the Problems of Witness Testimony in the Invasion of East Prussia During the First World War

Svitlana Makhovska (Kiyv): Face to Face with the Witness of Occupation: Challenges of Interviewing

3. Methodological Discussions

4. Hearts and Minds? The Impossibility of a Public Space

Chairs: Ota Konrad (Prague) / Anne Le Huérou (Paris)

Mischa Gabowitsch (Mainz) / Mykola Homanyuk (Kherson): Monuments and Territory: War Memorials in Russian-Occupied Ukraine

Manuel Mork (München): An Occupied Public: Evading the German Media Regime Under Nazi Occupation (1940-44)

Yuliia Soroka (Kharkiv / Fribourg): People Under Occupation as Social Actors: The Limits of Representation in Wartime Public Discourse

5. Economic Policies and Practices: Exploitation and Survival

Chairs: Sophie Lambroschini (Berlin) / Jürgen Finger (Paris)

Nina Janz (Amsterdam): Navigating War Experience Between Collaboration and Coercion: Examining the Impact of Occupation on Forced Recruits/Laborers and Volunteers from the Benelux Countries During WWII

Margot Lyautey (Hamburg): Nazi Agricultural Policies in Occupied Europe: Landwirtschaftsführer as ‘Pioneers’ Through the Continent

Svetlana Suveica (Regensburg): Surviving the War in the Borderlands: Local Agency and Economic Dynamics in Romanian-Occupied Transnistria During World War II (1941-1944)

Giorgia Castellan (Paris): Parisians Evicted to House Germans During the Occupation: The Case of Immeubles Walter (1940-1944)

6. Institutions and Socio-Political Transformation Under Occupation

Chairs: Ismee Tames (Utrecht) / David Jishkariani (Tbilissi)

Dieter Pohl (Klagenfurt): Churches as Social Actors Under German Occupation in Eastern Europe, 1939-1945

Morgane Labbé (Paris): Feeding Families and Children in Occupied Polish Territories: The Fight of Charities and Relief Associations (Łódź, World War I)