The fall of the dictatorships in Europe has led to a need for researching relations collective memory -
reconciliation - conflict. This project covers the role of the built environment in the collective memory in
four cities hit by genocide and expulsions during and after WWII, as well as changed national boundaries
and communist dictatorships dissociating themselves from the earlier national affiliation: Lviv and Černivci i
Ukraina, Chişinău in Moldova and Wrocław in Poland. Political and ideological forces aimed to change the
identity of the cities and erase or reinterpret historical traces and cultural heritage. A reconciliation between
expelled and settled population groups is a question of recognition of the impact of the vanished population
groups to the history, cultural heritage and identity of the cities, and how the old urban environments are
treated by urban planning and the new population. This will be studied and compared in the four cities, at a
general level and deepened in some chosen urban districts.


The work includes inventories of the built environment and its use also before 1939, its
treatment in urban planning and city presentations and memories, knowledge and attitudes among the postwar
population concerning the vanished population groups and their built environment. The studies cover the
comminist and post-communist era, ending with conclusions for future development. The project is
accomplished together with local experts in the different cities.