Which historical events in considering a sensitive topic in your country?

17 comments

1. In France I can think of a single one : the War in Algeria.

   My grandfather that took part in it (he was a conscript) always avoided the subject. He changed his first name after taking part in it and only once he talked about it to me. It is still a sensitive subject.

   World War 2 and the collaboration can still be a little touchy too but less and less with time.

2. In the Netherlands it’s the slavery. The history of Dutch slavery involves slavery in the Netherlands itself, as well as the establishment of slavery outside the Netherlands in which it played a role. We used to import people to sell them again.

3. The Treaty of Trianon was likely the most traumatic event in our country’s history and something common people avoid talking about, for obvious reasons.

   When it comes to sensitive topic, i feel like the role we played in the deportations of Jews in WW2 is still not widely discussed. Unfortunately too many people refuse to admit we weren’t just victims of the Germans, and that we had our fair share of the cruelty and the crimes committed against Jewish/Roma people.

   Similarly, the deportations and forced expulsion of Germans (Swabians) after WW2 is not quite discussed here, and their suffering is severely overlooked.

4. I’d point out a lesser known one, the Great Wrath.

   It’s the period of Russian occupation in Finland during the Great Northern War, during which Peter ”the Great” ordered a genocide of the Finnish population. Around 150 000 people (out of 420 000 in that time) died from torture, starvation or just straight up murdered, or were taken as slaves to Russia.

   The scale of the event has been downplayed as a result of Finlandization during the cold war, where the nation just went silent about it to not anger the Soviets. It’s not really a sensitive topic as it happened over 250 years ago, but people are pretty pissed that this crime was just ignored. When adjusted for population, in the death toll it’s at the level of the holocaust.

   If not anything else, i humbly request that you drop the ”great” part when you mention Peter I.

5. Not really a singular historical event but centuries of being the equivalent of Amazon for slavery.
   I think this is something that we really don’t talk about.

6. The post war (ww2) killings of slovenians by slovenians.

   After the war, there was a power grab, still today celebrated as a heroic victory over traitors, throwing everyone under the nazi colaborator tag, even tho a lot of them were just liberals, some even from the communist party, because they wanted less stalinism and more pro western democracy style republic. [Here](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagode_Trial) is an example of internal “cleaning”.

   Ofcourse also thousands of young men, who joined the home guard (anti partisan, anti communist), where they accepted assistance from the occupiers to resist the common enemy – partisans.. were also murdered en masse, without a trial, without a grave, even a few years after the ww2. Today you can see their symbolic graves in a lot of villages, especially in areas where the nazis took over from the fascists, west of Ljubljana. In those places, partisans were often robbing villages for food and pressuring them into sabotaging the fascists, who then responded with revenge, like burning down whole villages. Most men buried in these symbolic graves are under 21 years old, called into inspection after the war, never to be seen again.

   Today, if you mention it, you are often going to get looks, like you just spit your mother in her face. While the head of the communist party, who overlooked the murder of the “national liability”, has statues in the capitol and is considered a national hero.

7. In Sweden:

   – that they were very big in eugenics and had the first state-sponsored/owned institute in the world in racial biology (1922): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Institute_for_Racial_Biology

   – the swedification and abuse of Samis and Finns (1840-1970) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedification

   – the compulsary sterilisation done on people. Early on based on eugenics, social and medical factors. Before 2012, done before sex change (all transgender people). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_sterilisation_in_Sweden

   The consequences of these acts still remain and are a topic that appear on the news from time to time. It is also why Sweden is very sensitive to using the word “race” in official statements when referring to miniorities (that’s a whole other chapter…).

   Settlements/compensation suits, hate crime still occurs, the university/museum have material still that they refuse to send back to Sami or Finns etc. The Swedish Church didn’t formally apologize for the abuse they did on the Sami until *two week ago* (https://www.svenskakyrkan.se/samiska/speech-of-apology)

   (Can also add that Norway and Finland have similiary a dark history with the discrimination of Samis and that it is still an big issue. Just check their wikis or google. Wiki doesn’t have much on these topics but there is more if you search scholar or news).

   Edit: a lot of Swedes tend to get salty if you mention this …

8. The Civil War of 1946-49.

   Not only it is considered sensitive, but almost taboo to discuss. It is de facto not taught in school history, and rarely mentioned in politics (except to shout provocative slogans).

9. Sensitive in the sense that it isnt talked about it much eventhough it shoul be talked about? I would say german colonialism and especially the “Herero and Namaqua genocide”. I remember a politician saying that the Armenian Genocide was the first genocide of the 20th century, which was a big step because it wasnt formally seen as a genocide before. But it completely ignored what germans did in their african colonies before that in the 20th century.

   Sensitive in the sense that you should make jokes abput it, because we take it very seriously? Then WW2, nazis and the holocaust. For obvious reasons I guess

10. Retribution to the Germans after the end of the occupation.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bene%C5%A1_decrees
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_Germans_from_Czechoslovakia

    Action of the Mašín brothers.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_and_Ctirad_Ma%C5%A1%C3%ADn

    Whereas the Munich Agreement and the Soviet invasion in 1968, although considered national tragedies, most people are in agreement in their view.

11. Maybe Leopold II in the Congo, but I wouldn’t say it’s really a sensitive topic, pretty much everyone agrees he was shit and no one is afraid to speak up about it.
    The terrorist attacks in Brussels are a lot more sensitive, but that was only a couple of years ago, so not really historic

12. I think a good one is the active cooperation by Danish parliament with the Nazis.

    Following the invasion in the early morning on the 9th of April 1940, the social democratic government quickly capitulated to the Germans (though fighting continued until around noon) and instead formed a government of national unity, consisting of the “old” parties: the social democrats, the radicals, the liberals and the conservatives. This government actively cooperated with the Germans, passed laws practically written by the Nazis, violated the Constitution on behalf of the Nazis, and so on. For all intends and purposes, Denmark was an ally of Nazi Germany, albeit under coercion. The government actively helped in the persecution of Jews, homosexuals, “political dissidents” (i.e. communists,) the Danish police helped round these groups up, helped track down and suppress the early resistance to the cooperation/occupation. The idea behind national collaboration was to _spare_ Denmark the horrors of occupation, as heard of in Poland and Czechoslovakia. The collaboration governments finally collapsed in 1943, under strain from growing resistance (mainly communist resistance, though liberal, conservative and nationalists groups also existed,) the so-called “August Revolt”(mainly led by communists and trade unions) and growing demands from the Germans to suppress said resistance.

    For a long time following the war, the official line, as taught in schools and in museums, was that Denmark was aligned with the Western Allies, and was a resistance-defined country. Only in the last 20 or so years, has this story really begun to be criticised in the broader public, and it still is somewhat controversial to some, with collaboration still be defended by some, using above argument.

13. I feel I’m the UK we still have a lot of issues with the British Empire.

    There are still many people who believe that the Empire was a good thing, or perhaps had ‘good intentions’.

    There needs to be more education about the history and impacts of the Empire and the suffering it caused.

    It holds us back as a country.

14. The Armenian Genocide.

    It is considered as a deportation (tehcir) by Turkish government. Turkey does not deny the event unlike the popular belief, but does not recognize it as genocide. Also the whole “it wasn’t a genocide, even it was they deserved it” is a disqusting phrase came out of internet. Not popular in Turkey at all.

15. Luxembourg willfully rounding up its Jews and shipping them off to camps by train.

    This was before invasion.

    The train station, Hollerich, now has a small museum/memorial for it.

    Luxembourg only apologised for this around four years ago (from memory).

16. For the UK I’d have to say certain aspects of the British Empire, for example the concentration camps we set up during the Second Boer War in South Africa. Sure, not all of our imperial history is bad, but there are certainly a few dark pages in our history books.

17. The Greek civil war that took place after WWII. It is so messy that I have tried to figure out what went down and it’s still not 100% clear to me because all the different voices are so passionately conflicting.