Echoes of Conflict / New Approaches to the Human Costs of War

Czech Academy of Sciences (Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR); the Institute of International Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University (Institut mezinárodních studií Fakulty sociálních věd UK); the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS); and the Lviv Centre for Urban History (Tsentr miskoi istorii) in collaboration with the Max Weber Foundation, German Historical Institute Warsaw (Deutsches Historisches Institut Warschau, DHI) and its Branch Office Prague.Linked to the eightieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War, the conference examined the long-term impact of war and violence on individuals, families, and communities.Although many papers focused on the Second World War, contributions ranged from the First World War to recent conflicts.The overarching aim was to shift attention from global political narratives towards victim care, the reconstruction of families and homes, and the mental health consequences of violence -a goal the organizers successfully achieved.The conference opened with a keynote by social psychologist Michał Bilewicz (University of Warsaw), who presented his recent research on the effects of historical trauma in Poland.He discussed the relationship between traumatic national histories and susceptibility to conspiracy theories, arguing that societies marked by severe wartime losses, in terms of both material assets and human life, exhibit higher levels of conspiratorial thinking.Bilewicz also reflected on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the spread of anti-Ukrainian narratives.Much of the material he presented appears in his recent book Traumaland. 1