ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to explore the role that memories from the
Second World War play in the construction of the European identity. To
this end I propose to substitute the concept of collective memory with that
of collective remembrance as a theoretical tool better equipped to capture
the ongoing process of elaboration of a traumatic past such as the Eur-
opean one. The analysis of the practices of remembrance that takes place at
three levels (institutional, public and pedagogical) will show that a struggle
for the definition of the past in the light of the construction of a political identity is taking place.
