Second World War History

This final chapter to Fights across Frontiers explores how, when and where transnational experiences of resistance were acknowledged, whether in national, political or private communities, and how changed over time. This may help us understand why people with experiences in transnational resistance did not easily became part of the public understanding of the war. Two strands will be followed. The first traces the afterlives of resisters with transnational experiences, that is, what direction their lives took after the Second World War. Clearly the historical context changed very quickly, as national liberation and victory in Europe gave way to the Cold War and wars of decolonisation. Resisters clearly had to navigate these challenges, some reinventing themselves in order to do so and some falling foul of changing circumstances. The second strand explores how transnational resistance was remembered over the period from the war down to the present. These memories are found at three different levels: at the level of the individual’s own memory, articulated in memoirs or testimonies; at the level of the group or association to which he or she belonged and at some stage began again to remember their past as a group; and at the level of the collective memory of the society or country as a whole. This memory operated independently of the resisters themselves and may also be called the dominant narrative of the society or country. Such memories are in dialogue with each other but also in a power struggle. Group memories contest each other and seek to impose themselves as the dominant narrative of society, which then seeks to eclipse other memories. This struggle takes place over time, articulated by associations of resistance veterans, by resistance foundations that took over from them as they died out, by journalists, historians, publishers and filmmakers, by political activists and politicians themselves, all of them in turn shaped by new conflicts, new circumstances and new paradigms. Dominant narratives were forged by the national liberations of 1944–5, the onset of the Cold War and wars of decolonisation. These were challenged and modified by East-West détente after 1956, the Six Day War of 1967, the events of 1968, the eruption of Holocaust memory in the 1970s and 1980s and by the end of the Cold War which accelerated both globalisation and the rise of populist nationalism in post-Cold War Europe. The memory of transnational resistance, which for a long while was buried by thse dominant narratives, gradually but unevenly broke once again into the public sphere.

This final chapter explores how, when and where transnational experiences of resistance were acknowledged, whether in national, political or private communities, and how changed over time. This may help us understand why people with experiences in transnational resistance did not easily became part of the public understanding of the war. Two strands will be followed. The first traces the afterlives of resisters with transnational experiences, that is, what direction their lives took after the Second World War. Clearly the historical context changed very quickly, as national liberation and victory in Europe gave way to the Cold War and wars of decolonisation. Resisters clearly had to navigate these challenges, some reinventing themselves in order to do so and some falling foul of changing circumstances. The second strand explores how transnational resistance was remembered over the period from the war down to the present. These memories are found at three different levels: at the level of the individual’s own memory, articulated in memoirs or testimonies; at the level of the group or association to which he or she belonged and at some stage began again to remember their past as a group; and at the level of the collective memory of the society or country as a whole. This memory operated independently of the resisters themselves and may also be called the dominant narrative of the society or country. Such memories are in dialogue with each other but also in a power struggle. Group memories contest each other and seek to impose themselves as the dominant narrative of society, which then seeks to eclipse other memories. This struggle takes place over time, articulated by associations of resistance veterans, by resistance foundations that took over from them as they died out, by journalists, historians, publishers and filmmakers, by political activists and politicians themselves, all of them in turn shaped by new conflicts, new circumstances and new paradigms. Dominant narratives were forged by the national liberations of 1944–5, the onset of the Cold War and wars of decolonisation. These were challenged and modified by East-West détente after 1956, the Six Day War of 1967, the events of 1968, the eruption of Holocaust memory in the 1970s and 1980s and by the end of the Cold War which accelerated both globalisation and the rise of populist nationalism in post-Cold War Europe. The memory of transnational resistance, which for a long while was buried by thse dominant narratives, gradually but unevenly broke once again into the public sphere.

Este documento presenta el marco legal de las relaciones con los ciudadanos de países enemigos residentes en Costa Rica durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, cuando el país le declaró la guerra a Japón, Alemania e Italia. Antes de ese momento, las relaciones diplomáticas se habían modificado conforme a la aparición de nuevos acontecimientos. De esta manera, el país, bajo el contexto de la política de Defensa Hemisférica de los Estados Unidos de América, inició un período de promulgación, eliminación y reforma de leyes, decretos y acuerdos en el entorno nacional e internacional.