HETEROTOPIAS IN THE FORESTON THE PERCEPTION OF MEMORIAL DAYS (USING THE EXAMPLE OF BUCHENWALD, BERLIN AND YEREVAN)

Abstract

2025 marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar/Germany and the victory of the Allies over Hitlerite fascism. The interference caused by the current war in Ukraine with regard to the evaluation of commemoration days for their implementation provided an opportunity to resume and expand on an essay published a few years ago comparing the memorials in Buchenwald and on Tsitsernakabert in Yerevan.

            The results of wars not only have potential consequences for the further course of history, but also for the ideational content of monuments referring to them, which, if they are allowed to remain, can change the direction of their interpretative content.

            This is illustrated by the cursory history of the memorials near Weimar (Buchenwald) and Tsitsernakabert and their use in comparison with the Soviet Memorial in Treptower Park/Berlin and Red Square in Moscow.

            The monuments under discussion and the events that revolve around them are placed in the three-way relationship between past and present (Benjamin) and the respective changes in perspective are observed, taking into account the relationship between the individual and the collective.