Organizers:

• Emmanuel Debruyne (UCL/Paris IAS)
• Elise Julien (IRHiS – Sciences Po Lille)
• James Connolly (University of Manchester – LabEx EHNE).

Presentation

Occupation represented a major experience of the Second World War for a large part of Europe and beyond, yet the First World War had also seen multiple military occupations, in the West and in the East. These occupations took multiple forms: as well as occupations by enemy nations, there were friendly occupations of liberated territories, de facto occupations in conquered territories ratified by treaties, and occupations by various belligerent powers during the civils wars that prolonged the conflict. However, these diverse situations were not isolated. They involved synchronic links, from one territory to another, as much as diachronic links which fit into the longer period of the twentieth century. It is this ‘connected’ character of occupation experiences that this workshop seeks to explore, using as a starting point the European occupations of the First World War.

This exploration concerns, on the one hand, the politics of occupation: the local or global applications of policies, the influence of previous or concomitant experiences, the arrival of enemies or allies, different forms of transfers of experience, and so on. Our reflections will consider, on the other hand, the point of view of the occupied populations: behaviours drawn from experience and representations of other (previous or concomitant) occupations, the transfer of practices in cases of an inversion of roles of occupier and occupied, or even elsewhere.

Program

9.00: Welcome.

9h30: Introduction – Emmanuel Debruyne (UCL/Paris IAS), – Elise Julien (IRHiS – Sciences Po Lille)

10h-11h15: Panel 1 ‘From one world war to another, what lessons for occupiers?’

Chair: Matthias Meirlaen (Catholic University of Leuven)

-  Heiko Brendel (University of Mainz): ‘The Diachronic Transfer of Austro- Hungarian Occupation and Counter-Insurgency Experiences to Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS’.

-  Marnix Beyen & Svenja Weers (University of Antwerp): ‘The German Military Administration in Belgium During the Second World War and its Attempt to write a History of the first German Occupation of Belgium’.

11h30-13h00 : Panel 2 From one world war to another, what adaptations for the occupied populations?’

Chair: Emmanuel Debruyne (UCL/Paris IAS)

-  Thomas Graditzky (Free University of Brussels): ‘Belgian experiences of occupation from the First World War to the Second. What mobilisation of the Hague Convention?’

-  Chantal Kesteloot (Free University of Brussels) & Bénédicte Rochet (University of Namur/Paris 3-Sorbonne Nouvelle) : ‘From Patriotism to Accommodation (1914/1940). Local Authorities and Occupation in Brussels’

13.00-14.00: Lunch

14h00-15h15 : Panel 3 ‘Occupations, perceptions of the occupied and the organisation of repression.’

Rapporteur : Benoît Majerus (University of Luxembourg)

Chair: Benoît Majerus

-  Leonid Rein (International Institute for Holocaust Research Yad Vashem): ‘Between Loathing and Genocide: German Soldiers and East European Jews during Two World Wars’

-  Barbara Lambauer (LabEx EHNE/IRICE, Paris): ‘La répression nazie dans l’Europe occupée, 1939-1945’

15h30-16h45 : Panel 4 'Wartime occupations and post-war occupations: a study in transfers.’

Chair: James Connolly (Ball State University)

-  Julia Wambach (University of California, Berkeley): ‘Les journées les plus inoubliables de ma vie – Francis Thiallet and the long History of French and German Occupation, 1914-1955.’

-  Drew Flanagan (Brandeis University/Paris Institute of Political Studies): ‘Just Severity: Force and Prestige in the French Zone of Occupied Germany, 1945-1955’

17.00: Conclusions – James Connolly (Ball State University)