The Second World War in the Memory Cultures of France and Germany.

In 2006, a three-volume joint history manual will be published for use in secondary schools in France and Germany, beginning with Volume III on the period from the Second World War until the present-day. This project illustrates not only the prominence of the Second World War and contemporary history in historical education in these countries, but will also aim to fulfil two functions: to analyse this event in a way that is commensurable to the two historiographical traditions and to provide an adequate foundation for pupils’ future memories of this event in relation to social contexts that have been largely distinct, but whose analogies and overlaps are becoming increasingly apparent. In anticipation of the joint history manual, this article sketches some of the analogies and overlaps between French and German memory cultures of the Second World War in a transnational context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]