For decades, Austria framed itself primarily as the first victim of Nazism, downplaying Austrian complicity. This “victim myth” (Opfermythos) began to erode after the 1986 Waldheim affair, but commemorations of anti-Nazi resistance have remained comparatively weak. Striking evidence of this imbalance can be seen in the thousands of war memorials dedicated to fallen soldiers from both world wars—which are deeply embedded in Austria’s memory culture—and the few monuments dedicated to the resistance. The southern part of the Austrian state of Carinthia, home to a Slovene-speaking community for centuries, differs significantly from the rest of Austria in terms of its memory culture, however, since Carinthian Slovenes fought here as partisans in the ranks of the Slovene Liberation Front (Osvobodilna fronta slovenskega naroda), forming the most substantial resistance within the German Reich. The book centers on the Carinthian majority population’s disregard for the victims of this struggle and the trauma they endured, as well as the marginalization within Carinthia’s landscape of remembrance of the resistance, expulsion, and murder of Carinthian Slovenes during World War II. This specific Carinthian Slovene memory culture, which the author defines as “vernacular memory culture,” is examined through various memory practices, sites of memory, and contrasted with the official national Carinthian memory culture.

Echoes of the Past: Carinthian Slovene Memories of the Second World War is based on the dissertation by Douglas Carlton McKnight, with which he earned his PhD from the Department of German at Georgetown University in 2020. This also explains why the book, which was published in 2026, primarily covers the period up to 2020 and has been updated with only a few details. It is worth noting not only that the author spent a considerable amount of time in Carinthia—both during his research stays and as an English teacher with the Austrian-American Educational Commission—but also that he learned Slovene in addition to German. His CV and the book reflect deep engagement with the region and subject. He also voices clear support for “memory entrepreneurs” advocating greater recognition of injustices against Carinthian Slovenes and their anti-Nazi resistance within Carinthia’s landscape of remembrance.

The book comprises an introduction, four main chapters, and a conclusion. Chapter 1 offers a historical overview and distinguishes Carinthia’s “official memory culture” from the Carinthian Slovene “vernacular memory culture,” illustrating both with examples. The author clearly demonstrates that Carinthia’s official memory culture—supported by significant segments of Carinthia’s political elite and organizations such as the Carinthian League of Resistance Fighters (Kärntner Abwehrkämpferbund) or the Carinthian Heimat Service (Kärntner Heimatdienst)—focuses primarily on the so-called Carinthian Defense Struggle following World War I, the subsequent 1920 plebiscite, and World War II. For World War II, countless memorials honor fallen soldiers, while the partisan resistance appears mainly in connection with “the kidnapped” (die Verschleppten), Carinthians arrested and executed without trials by Yugoslavia in 1945. Thus, the “dark side” of the partisans is emphasized, their role in liberating Austria and enabling the 1955 restoration of statehood is omitted, and a central memorial to the partisan resistance remains absent. Two examples the author cites—the Bleiburg/Pliberk war memorial and a memorial stone in Klagenfurt/Celovec honoring the kidnapped—have since been artistically reworked. In 2020, the Bleiburg memorial was moved to a redesigned plaza near the main cemetery alongside other memorials to victims of war and tyranny and supplemented with a memorial to the 1942 deportation of Carinthian Slovenes and victims of National Socialism. In Klagenfurt, on 8 May 2025, a reproduction of the memorial stone for the kidnapped was installed; it makes no reference to the partisans and thus challenges the previously one-dimensional remembrance of political violence in official Carinthian memory culture.

Chapter 2 examines the landscape of remembrance in southern Carinthia, where many World War II sites that celebrate the heroism and martyrdom of the Carinthian Slovene resistance were erected, which are in sharp contrast to the official memory culture. A key example is the Peršmanhof: on 25 April 1945, members of the 13th SS and Police Regiment massacred 11 people there, including 7 children. Today, Peršmanhof symbolizes the persecution, resistance, and violence experienced by Slovene-speaking Carinthians; it functions as a site of dialogue, commemoration, and education, and includes a museum. In summer 2025, a large police operation to inspect an anti-fascist student camp at Peršmanhof drew nationwide criticism. A Federal Interior Ministry commission later deemed the intervention disproportionate, unlawful, and questionable in several respects, and courts have since found parts of it illegal. The incident underscores the continuing hostility toward the partisan resistance within official Carinthian memory culture and the difficulties of establishing a counternarrative. These continuities are also clearly described by the author.

Chapter 3 focuses on memory entrepreneurs who, with their civic institutions, for example, the Alliance of Carinthian Partisans (Zveza koroških partizanov), seek to challenge the dominant (historical) political discourse and narratives about World War II and to create a counternarrative. The analysis presented here is based on expert interviews. In Chapter 4, McKnight turns his attention to an analysis of Maja Haderlap’s novel “Angel of Oblivion” (Engel des Vergessens), which has succeeded in transcending the boundaries between the Carinthian Slovene vernacular memory culture and the Carinthian, respectively, Austrian memory culture, and has brought nationwide attention to the subject.

The book closes by asking whether elements of the Carinthian Slovenes’ vernacular memory will enter the official memory culture, yielding “a more nuanced narrative of the region’s twentieth-century past” (141). The Peršmanhof affair increased awareness of Slovene resistance but also exposed persistent hostility toward it. Attempts to redesign specific monuments and the 2025 bilingual exhibition “Hinschaun! Poglejmo. Kärnten und der Nationalsozialismus/Koroška in nacionalsocializem” (Look! Carinthia and National Socialism) at the Carinthian State Museum are first steps toward integration. Meanwhile, proponents of the still dominant narrative continue to erect new monuments and still receive significant political support.

The book distinguishes itself by analyzing Carinthian Slovene memory culture through multiple sites of memory—museums, memorials, civic institutions, and literature—using an interdisciplinary framework spanning memory, literary, and museum studies. This approach yields a comprehensive picture of how this minority remembers the war, seeks recognition within the majority’s memory culture, and confronts persistent obstacles. Maps clarify geography, and numerous monument images make the landscape of remembrance tangible. The book is a valuable contribution to scholarship and public debate on memory culture in Carinthia and Austria, advancing memory studies, minority studies, and postwar European history, and it comes at just the right time.