This article analyzes the war memories and processes of meaning-making of Dutch veterans who returned to places related to their deployment in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. It argues that the incentive to return can be found in the difficulties that veterans have in assigning positive meaning to their deployment because existing collective and cultural memories about the war and the genocide in Srebrenica do not align with many of the veterans’ experiences during and after the war. In the analysis of interviews conducted with seventeen Dutch veterans, attention is paid to their wartime memories, motivation to return, and experiences during the return trips. Returning to former places of deployment provides a way to reconcile memories, especially traumatic ones. The building of these memories passes through several phases: introspection; opening up to family, friends, and relatives; and helping others.

中文翻译：

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理解战争记忆：荷兰退伍军人返回前南斯拉夫的分析

本文分析了 1990 年代返回与前南斯拉夫部署有关的地方的荷兰退伍军人的战争记忆和意义构建过程。它认为，退伍军人在为他们的部署赋予积极意义时遇到的困难可以找到返回的动力，因为关于战争和斯雷布雷尼察种族灭绝的现有集体和文化记忆与许多退伍军人期间和之后的经历不相符战争。在对 17 名荷兰退伍军人进行的采访分析中，我们关注了他们的战时记忆、回国动机和回程经历。回到以前的部署地点提供了一种调和记忆的方法，尤其是创伤性记忆。这些记忆的建立经历了几个阶段：内省；向家人、朋友和亲戚敞开心扉；并帮助他人。