Remembrance and Commemoration the opposite strategy and kept stubbornly silent about the past; they might have thought denial was the most expedient way forward for getting on with their lives. Those who had experienced the end of the war, displacement or expulsion as children also often found it difficult, in the years after, to lend words to their emotions. Many among the generation who had lived through these events remained profoundly disturbed and deracinated, and never really felt at home again anywhere. A BAG CONTAINING A COLLECTION OF STONES AND FRAGMENTS FROM NORTHERN BOHEMIA BELONGING TO MARGARETE LÖHNING Habartice u Krupky (Czechia), 1992 Heimatverein or private get- togethers with those from the same region were important spaces in their adaptation to life in a new place: whether institution or private initiative, they served as Ersatz-Heimat, as it were, a substitute homeland. In some families, the parents’ desire to maintain a bygone, now historical identity caused serious rifts when teenage children challenged their parents over their lack of adaptation to the present. In other families, parents pursued Tokens of Remembrance Margarete Löhning’s story illustrates very well the importance of a personal memory of losing one’s Heimat. Alongside numerous photo albums and personal memoirs she also kept a small collection of stones and broken pieces of crockery, earthenware and tiles. These she had brought back from her travels to her former home in Northern Bohemia in the 1990s. Ebersdorf, the place where she worked as a teacher until 1945,
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