May 8, 1945: “We still live with the specters of World War II”
Philosophy researcher at the Free University of Brussels, author of “The Warlike Desires of Modernity” published by Seuil (224 pages, €21.50).
Collected by Béatrice Bouniol
Published on
Armistice commemorations in Nancy on May 8, 2024. Alexandre MARCHI / PHOTOPQR/L'EST REPUBLICAIN/MAXPP
On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of May 8, 1945, Déborah V. Brosteaux, a philosophy researcher at the Université libre de Bruxelles (1), analyzes this post-war period of which we are the heirs. Behind the dream of European peace, she deciphers the seduction that war still exerts over us.
What is your view on the date of May 8, which commemorates the victory of the Allies, the fall of Nazism and the emergence of a new world order?
Déborah V. Brosteaux: May 8th is a tipping point towards the post-war, post-fascism, post-Shoah era... But being "after" doesn't mean that this past is over, quite the contrary. There is a whole afterlife of 1940-1945, which has its own history. Our present remains steeped in this memory, and we still live with the specters of 1939-1945.
This article is reserved for subscribers
La Croıx
%3Aquality(70)%2Fcloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com%2Fliberation%2FFL57JDFW4ZATNCZS6XWIFFDGEI.jpg&w=3840&q=100)