SPAN 211 - Building Peace and Memory from World War II to Latin America

While the European conquest permanently shaped what we now know as Latin America, more recent transatlantic flows of people, ideas, and beliefs have also left an indelible mark. During and in the aftermath of World War II, Jewish survivors resettled across the globe, many of them in Latin America. They were subsequently followed by scores of Nazis attempting to evade prosecution and live in anonymity across the Atlantic Ocean. At the same time, the post-World War II era saw the development of some of the most important concepts and practices of human rights, justice, memory, and reconciliation, ranging from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Nuremberg Trials to the European monuments and human rights memorial museums. In the decades following World War II, when different countries across Latin America were attempting to rebuild in the aftermath of violent dictatorships, civil wars, and decades of internal conflict, they were strongly influenced by these Post-World War II concepts and practices of reckoning with past atrocities and moving toward more peaceful and democratic futures. This interdisciplinary cultural studies course will examine the relationship between histories of genocide and mass atrocity and the development of concepts and practices of peace and reconciliation, transitional justice, and memory politics from World War II to the dictatorships and civil wars of the latter half of the 20th century in Latin America.