Rusové a Němci ve vícegeneračním vzpomínání na druhou světovou válku: čí vzpomínky, čí paměť?

The paper examines the ways in which Russians and Germans have been depicted in the recollections on the German occupation of Bohemia and Moravia. It is based on a set of 22 interviews with the participants recalling their own wartime experiences or the stories told in their family. Using content analysis, the paper establishes a negative image of Russians and a rather positive image of Germans across the generations of participants. The study further explores the possible reasons for this “reversal of poles” in contrast to the interpretations of Russians and Germans before the fall of Communism in 1989. The reasons are sought in three areas: the sympathy of Czechs towards the Germans and their antipathy towards the Russians (constantly revealed in public surveys ever since 1989); heavily anti-Communist interpretation of history (or the official memory); and the influence of collective European memory that no longer understands the Germans as the enemy. The study ponders over the mutual influence of individual, family and official memory as a complex process of continuous negotiation about history under the influence of contemporary needs.