Different Stories of One Battle: The Moravian-Ostrava Offensive in Historiography and Collective Memory

Ondřej Kolář

Silesian Museum in Opava

Abstract

The paper focuses on the historiography and remembrance of a significant battle, fought between the Red Army and German forces in the last week of World War II in Europe on the present Czech-Polish border. In the opening part of the paper, the historical surveys are depicted and analysed. The text also examines “official” forms of remembrance, such as museums and memorials, as well as popular narratives, myths and common tales surrounding the military operation, which are seen in the context of a specific collective identity of the population of the borderland. The article seeks correlations between professional research, political rhetoric and other aspects that created the “popular image” of the offensive. The question of regional memory is understood in the context of nationwide debates about contemporary history.

Keywords:

Moravian-Ostrava offensive, narrative, liberation, collective memory, historiography