The bodies of the dictator and their martyrdom memory: Europe, 1945-2024

Abstract

The article explores the changing evolution of memory debates on places intimately linked to the death of different fascist and para-fascist dictators from a comparative outlook. During the second decade of the twenty-first century, a number of parallel debates arose in several European countries regarding the public management by democratic regimes of those sites of memory that were directly linked to the personal biographies of their former dictators. The ways in which each country has dealt with the dead bodies, mausoleums and birthplaces of the dictators varied considerably. However, some common questions occurred: what is better, oblivion or re-signification? How to avoid a posthumous cult of personality in those sites? To which extent the dictator’s charisma endures in those places? Using the concept of “sites of the dictators”, the article aims at exploring why it is so difficult to deal with some sites of memory linked to dead autocrats, as those places contribute directly or indirectly to humanizing them, making their remembrance more acceptable for the present and future generations.