Holocaust Narrations in German Memorials (completed)

Funded by Hans-Böckler-Foundation

Holocaust narrations in German memorials (Guided tours about the NS-crimes and their representation in German memorials)

In this study guided tours in German NS-Memorials are examined as examples of official and public speaking about the national socialist past. It describes which version of the past is constructed by the guides in their capacity as chosen and therefore explicitly entitled persons. The study also asks and answers the question in which way it (the past) is constructed and due to which factors this happens.

It turned out that there are only a small number of subjects regarding the content of the narration, thus indicating a canonisation regarding these stories. One can identify two main modes (ideal types) in which they are told: account and explanation.

In the account mode the narration is mainly normative and tended to dehistorize the past. The former victims (now survivors) are the centre of reference for the guides. They become guarantors not only for the truth of the history told in the tours but also for their ‘right’ representation (e.g. should there be reconstructions of buildings or other objects at the sites?). In this kind of narration the victims who have been objects to the force of their perpetrators (and therefore, in this part of the narration) become survivors. As survivors they are now subjects; their stories and their opinions are relevant. The narrations purpose is the establishing of justice afterwards. It also serves to justify present values and actions under reference of the past.

The explanation on the other hand orientates itself on social-scientific construction modes of the past.  The past is subject to historical and sociological questions and explanations. References like secondary literature and records are used to make interpretation plausible. The aim is to understand the past.

A comparison with private constructions of the past – as in families – is following the description of the guided tours. The knowledge about inter-generational down-handing (transmission) comes from various studies I refer to which worked with interviews and group-discussions. Although the stories told in private and in the guided tours differ completely (e.g. in private history-telling the holocaust has nearly no place), they bare similarities on a structural level, as to the principles in which the narration is constructed. Hence, the history told in memorials does not contradict the private versions of the past. In parts it even complements them.

On a theoretical level the study establishes a connection between a theory of memory and the more empirical orientated Tradierungsforschung (research in the down-handing of the past). Under reference to other studies this work specifies (refines) and at the same time broadens the concept of down-handing (Tradierung).