<i>Morts pour la France</i>: Things and memory in the ‘destroyed villages’ of Verdun

This article considers the power of things to affect how the past is remembered in the aftermath of mass violence, through the case of the ‘destroyed villages’ ( villages détruits) of the battlefield of Verdun, theatre in 1916 of one of the most destructive battles of World War I. As well as causing mass military death, the battle also led to the ‘death’ of nine small villages, declared to have ‘died for France’ and incorporated into the post-war commemorative landscape of the battlefield. The article illustrates the 21st-century discourse and practices that surround the remains of these villages, from emplaced ruins to photographs and other documents. A century after the ‘death’ of the villages, people who identify as descendants of the original inhabitants gather at the sites and through these objects evoke their ancestors and the pre-war settlement, momentarily reconstituting a space that they can ‘inhabit’ physically, imaginatively and affectively. However, bids to restore a ‘village’ space and time are overwritten by the commemorative framework in which the sites and remains have been embedded for the past century, that identifies the ‘dead’ localities with the human Fallen and their history with the moment of their ‘death for France’. So, while the surviving traces of the former villages retain their power to affect and thus to evoke the pre-war, civilian past, their ability to produce a new memory for Verdun is limited by their incorporation into a memorial landscape dedicated to heroic military death for the nation. The physical expropriation of sites and vestiges during the post-war reconstruction of the battlefield and their preservation as tangible tokens of mass death has enduringly fixed and overdetermined their meaning, in a form of symbolic expropriation that limits their power to produce memory. </jats:p

NILDE World: un nuovo spazio per la comunità

This paper describes the birth, the development, the structure, and the governance of NILDE World. Designed and managed by the Libraries Committee NILDE, CBN, it is thought as an open space and a virtual place available to the NILDE communit

Strategies and Alliances into Action to Improve National Collaboration

The Italian NILDE network of libraries continues to grow through the use of the NILDE system and currently comprises more than 600 Italian librarians and about 10.000 registered end-users.The system allows to daily manage and to record all the Inter-Library-Loan (ILL) operations, with a high national coverage. This paper presents the NILDE network governance and evolution and the strategies that have been put into action to improve collaboration in resource sharing among the participants. These strategies include: &#8722; release of best practices and worst practices; &#8722; activities to promote the knowledge about the network; &#8722; cooperation with the Italian national catalogs and consortia; &#8722; data analysis about ILL and its performance, related to: turn around time, reciprocity factor, requested/supplied documents imbalance analysis, analysis of ILL requested serial titles and their relationship with consortial e-only acquisitions. The availability of such a high volume of ILL data has allowed for the first time to analyze the trends and gaps of ILL and to help future cooperative acquisitions planning

The Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative: the NILDE case study in the frame of Italian experiences

NILDE (Network for Inter-Library Document Exchange) is born at the CNR Bologna Research Area Library to provide an effective answer to the needs of libraries in order to guarantee information accessibility, sharing resources through Inter Library Loan (ILL) of returnable and non-returnable items (books and journal articles)

Déterrer, démêler et réarticuler les corps du génocide au Rwanda

This paper is concerned with the mass graves and exhumed bodies of victims of the Rwanda genocide and war of the 1990s. A government-led programme of exhumation of mass burials and individual graves has taken place over the last decade. The exhumation of mass graves has been undertaken, in the main, by Tutsi genocide survivors who work under the supervision of state officials. Post-unearthing, these bodies are unravelled, and the remnants of soft flesh, clothing, personal possessions and bones are separated from each other. Skeletal structures are fully disarticulated and the bones pooled into a vast collective, for placement within memorials. The outcome of these exhumations is that remains almost always lack individual identity at the point of reinterring. A productive analytical comparison is found in examining exhumations of Spanish Civil War graves, where the fates of individual dead are closely entangled with the lives of survivors. Here there is a clear contrast with exhumations in Rwanda, in the possible re-articulation of identities with specific human remains. But a similarity is also critical: in both cases the properties of human remains, as unsettling materials, garner specific 'affects', which drive forward national political projects that aim to consolidate particular collective memories of conflict, albeit that this kind of 'material agency' is mobilized to very different ends in each case

Case Reports1. A Late Presentation of Loeys-Dietz Syndrome: Beware of TGFβ Receptor Mutations in Benign Joint Hypermobility

Background: Thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAA) and dissections are not uncommon causes of sudden death in young adults. Loeys-Dietz syndrome (LDS) is a rare, recently described, autosomal dominant, connective tissue disease characterized by aggressive arterial aneurysms, resulting from mutations in the transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) receptor genes TGFBR1 and TGFBR2. Mean age at death is 26.1 years, most often due to aortic dissection. We report an unusually late presentation of LDS, diagnosed following elective surgery in a female with a long history of joint hypermobility. Methods: A 51-year-old Caucasian lady complained of chest pain and headache following a dural leak from spinal anaesthesia for an elective ankle arthroscopy. CT scan and echocardiography demonstrated a dilated aortic root and significant aortic regurgitation. MRA demonstrated aortic tortuosity, an infrarenal aortic aneurysm and aneurysms in the left renal and right internal mammary arteries. She underwent aortic root repair and aortic valve replacement. She had a background of long-standing joint pains secondary to hypermobility, easy bruising, unusual fracture susceptibility and mild bronchiectasis. She had one healthy child age 32, after which she suffered a uterine prolapse. Examination revealed mild Marfanoid features. Uvula, skin and ophthalmological examination was normal. Results: Fibrillin-1 testing for Marfan syndrome (MFS) was negative. Detection of a c.1270G > C (p.Gly424Arg) TGFBR2 mutation confirmed the diagnosis of LDS. Losartan was started for vascular protection. Conclusions: LDS is a severe inherited vasculopathy that usually presents in childhood. It is characterized by aortic root dilatation and ascending aneurysms. There is a higher risk of aortic dissection compared with MFS. Clinical features overlap with MFS and Ehlers Danlos syndrome Type IV, but differentiating dysmorphogenic features include ocular hypertelorism, bifid uvula and cleft palate. Echocardiography and MRA or CT scanning from head to pelvis is recommended to establish the extent of vascular involvement. Management involves early surgical intervention, including early valve-sparing aortic root replacement, genetic counselling and close monitoring in pregnancy. Despite being caused by loss of function mutations in either TGFβ receptor, paradoxical activation of TGFβ signalling is seen, suggesting that TGFβ antagonism may confer disease modifying effects similar to those observed in MFS. TGFβ antagonism can be achieved with angiotensin antagonists, such as Losartan, which is able to delay aortic aneurysm development in preclinical models and in patients with MFS. Our case emphasizes the importance of timely recognition of vasculopathy syndromes in patients with hypermobility and the need for early surgical intervention. It also highlights their heterogeneity and the potential for late presentation. Disclosures: The authors have declared no conflicts of interes

Remains of battlefield at Verdun

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme [FP7/2007-2013] under grant agreement n° 217411

Verdun, monument to the Victory

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme [FP7/2007-2013] under grant agreement n° 217411

Témoins Muets/Mute Witnesses: ethnography and archaeology encounter the objects of the Great War

International audienceRESUME : Les " Témoins Muets " sont des objets de la Grande Guerre ainsi qualifiés dans le catalogue d'une remarquable collection accessible au public à Romagne-sous-Montfaucon (Meuse). Au vingt-et-unième siècle, alors que les derniers survivants de la Grande Guerre et leurs descendants immédiats disparaissent, les objets matériels associés au conflit semblent éveiller un renouveau d'intérêt de la part du grand public, se traduisant par la création de musées, de fouilles archéologiques etc... Sur la base d'observations faites au cours de recherches ethnographiques et archéologiques sur l'ancien front occidental (Meuse, France et Belgique), je montre que ces objets sont aujourd'hui valorisés principalement de deux façons. D'un côté, ils sont vus comme des documents historiques et archéologiques permettant une reconstruction dépassionnée du conflit à partir de preuves matérielles, dans la mesure où il n'appartient plus lui-même à la mémoire vivante. D'un autre côté, ils sont valorisés en raison de leur pouvoir de toucher, d'éveiller l'émotion et d'aider les gens à ressentir des choses à propos de la guerre et, en particulier, un sentiment à l'égard des victimes. En d'autres termes, il semble qu'ils facilitent et encouragent un intérêt passionné pour le passé parmi ceux qui n'ont pas connu la guerre ni, en général, ses survivants. Je considère que ces deux aspects sont inséparables même s'ils sont contradictoires en apparence. Le rôle actuel de ces objets peut être interprété à travers le statut de témoin, caractéristique depuis la Grande Guerre des survivants des guerres et des atrocités, et impliquant de leur part le devoir éthique et moral de véhiculer la mémoire de la violence. Cette notion permet de comprendre le double rôle joué par les objets de la Grande Guerre dans la mesure où ceux-ci se sont substitués aux vivants pour perpétuer des liens porteurs de sens avec le passé de la guerre et ses morts en particulier. La disparition des ultimes survivants laisse les vestiges physiques en position de seuls et derniers " témoins " de la guerre et de ses violences. ABSTRACT : MUTE WITNESSES : AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND ETHNOLOGICAL APPROACH TO OBJECTS FROM THE GREAT WAR "Mute witnesses" are objects from the Great War according to the brochure of a remarkable collection open to the public at Romagne-sous-Montfaucon (Meuse). In the 21st century, as survivors of the Great War and their immediate descendants pass away, physical objects associated with the conflict seem to acquire new public relevance, with the creation of museums, archaeological excavations etc.... On the basis of observations made during ethnographic and archaeological research on the former Western Front (Meuse, France and Belgium), I show that these objects are valued today in two main ways. On the one hand, they are seen as historical and archaeological documents, enabling a dispassionate, evidence-based reconstruction of the war past as it ceases to be a living memory. On the other hand, objects are valued for their power to affect and to elicit emotion, to help people "feel" something about the war and also, especially, feel for its victims: in other words they seem to encourage and facilitate a passionate approach to the past among people who have not known the war nor, usually, its survivors. I argue that these two aspects cannot be separated even if they appear contradictory. The role of these objects today can be understood by drawing on the notion of 'witness', that since the Great War denotes survivors of war and atrocity and their moral/ethical duty to carry forward the memory of violence. This notion can today be used to analyze the dual role of Great War objects, because they have come to replace people in perpetuating meaningful links with the war past and the war dead in particular. The disappearance of the last survivors leaves the physical vestiges of the war as the sole remaining 'witnesses' to the war and its violence. OVERZICHT : STILLE GETUIGEN: ARCHEOLOGIE EN ETNOLOGIE IN VERBAND MET VOORWERPEN VAN DE EERSTE WERELDOORLOG "Stille getuigen" zijn volgens een brochure van een opmerkelijke openbare collectie in Romagne-sous-Montfaucon (departement Meuse) voorwerpen van de Eerste Wereldoorlog. In de 21e eeuw, naarmate er almaar minder overlevenden van de Eerste Wereldoorlog en hun rechtstreekse afstammelingen overblijven, lijken tastbare objecten die met de Oorlog worden geassocieerd, weer aan publieke belangstelling te winnen, wat blijkt uit de oprichting van musea, archeologische opgravingen, enz. Op basis van waarnemingen tijdens etnografisch en archeologisch onderzoek aan het vroegere westerse front (Meuse, Frankrijk en België) toon ik aan dat deze voorwerpen nu op twee vlakken waardevol zijn. Aan de ene kant worden ze gezien als historische en archeologische documenten waarmee de oorlog, die niet langer een levendige herinnering is, op een onpartijdige en empirisch onderbouwde manier kan worden gereconstrueerd. Aan de andere kant worden deze voorwerpen gewaardeerd omdat ze indruk maken en emoties opwekken, mensen helpen om iets te "voelen" als het over oorlog en vooral ook de slachtoffers gaat: met andere woorden, ze lijken bij mensen die de oorlog niet hebben meegemaakt en ook geen mensen kennen die hem hebben beleefd, een gepassioneerde benadering van het verleden in de hand te werken en te vereenvoudigen. Ik ben van mening dat deze twee aspecten niet los van elkaar kunnen worden gezien, ook al lijken ze dan tegenstrijdig te zijn. De rol die deze voorwerpen nu spelen, wordt duidelijk als we voortbouwen op het begrip 'getuige', dat sinds de Eerste Wereldoorlog verwijst naar overlevenden van oorlog en geweld en hun morele en ethische plicht om de herinnering aan dat geweld levendig te houden. Dit begrip kan worden gebruikt om de tweevoudige rol van de voorwerpen uit de Grote Oorlog te analyseren, omdat ze in de plaats van mensen de betekenisvolle link met de oorlog en de gesneuvelden in het bijzonder in stand houden. Nu de laatste overlevenden bijna allemaal gestorven zijn, zijn de tastbare overblijfselen van de oorlog nog de enige 'getuigen' van de oorlog en het geweld

View of the battlefield from the cemetery at Douaumont

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme [FP7/2007-2013] under grant agreement n° 217411