Reconciliation without closure: The long-term legacies of disappearances after the First World War

This article examines how the embodied and material consequences of violent conflict
shape long-term processes of post-war reconciliation and closure. Wars subject human bodies to death, disappearance, displacement, torture and other forms of extreme harm, producing effects that reverberate across generations. Yet, despite the central role of corporeality in conflict, limited attention has been paid to how bodily experiences, or the absence of bodies, inform efforts to repair and transform violence, including reconciliation initiatives. Focusing on the unresolved issue of missing persons, this article explores how the absence of bodies constrains or enables possibilities for reconciliation over extended periods. It does so through an analysis of the First World War’s Western Front in Belgium and France, where around 700,000 soldiers remain without known graves. By tracing the century-long afterlives of these disappearances, the article highlights the enduring influence of corporeal loss on post-war social and political transformation.