A Social Change in the Biographical Narratives of the Inhabitants of Today’s Slovakia – From the Munich Agreement to 14th March 1939

This paper provides information about the social change that started in autumn 1938 and the way this historical period is reflected in the biographical narratives of witnesses of today’s Slovak Republic. The author analysed oral histories from 200 interviews that focused on memories of the period from September 1938 (Munich Agreement) to March 1939 (establishment of the wartime Slovak State). She concentrated on two questions: 1. Which images, moments and situations represented social change in this historical period for the witness? 2. How do the biographical narratives describe the social change at a local level, in both the public sphere as well as in private within families? The author is interested in the relationship between the communicative and cultural memory (A. Assmann) and the relationship between memory and identity.