When history isn't made but happens: Memories of victimhood in Halberstadt (Germany)

Abstract

Taking as its point of departure two civic ceremonies on 8 April 2006 in the East German town of Halberstadt, one to commemorate people who had been murdered in a local concentration camp, the other to commemorate the German civilian victims of an Allied air raid, this article discusses memories of victimhood. It is argued that Halberstadt's citizens remember history as something that happened to them. It is demonstrated that, for them, the town itself, rather than human casualties (be they those who perished in a concentration camp or those who were killed in a bombing raid), provides the main focus for their grief. Drawing on the work of Alexander Kluge, it is suggested that memories of the air raid of 8 April 1945 are shaped by the inertia of emotions and of the capacity to remember and mourn.