Abstract:
The present paper resulted from a research process whose purpose was to verify the potentiality of memorialistic reports as educational resources which are capable of expanding the conceptions about the acting of Brazilian ex-combatants in World War II. This war conflict had many consequences and marked the memory of an entire generation. But due to political and ideological reasons the experiences lived by war veterans were silenced. That said, we sought to investigate the reasons that contributed to such silencing, with the aim of verifying how its reflexes had an impact on the formation of knowledge about the acting of the BEF – Brazilian Expeditionary Force, in the context of school education. The research was oriented towards achieving the following objectives: a) to discuss the New History, focusing on the educational relevance of memorialistic reports for the reconstruction of narratives that were silenced by official History, especially those coming from ex-combatants from BEF; b) to analyze the work Memórias de um mogiano na FEB, identifying in the memorialistic report genre possible resources to be explored in school education, with a view to a humanistic formation; c) point out the memorialistic report as a resource which is capable of bringing new visions and approaches on the acting of Brazilian ex-combatants to the school memory. This is a reflective analytical research that is framed in the qualitative modality of bibliographic and documentary analysis. It contains interpretations of memorialistic and photoethnographic narratives, which were used as a corpus, to show that discourses that go beyond the standards of academic writing in historiography are capable of promoting (re)significations. Therefore, we adopted as a methodological analysis perspective the cultural dialectical historical materialism. Based on all data presented in this research, it was showed that the preservation of memories is related to the dispute for the interests of the hegemonic classes. It was also evidenced that memory and testimony are closely linked and they are able to direct school education to new possibilities of visions, as well as to provide the strengthening of the humanity among the subjects.