The Camp and the Village: Local Memory of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Among the Resident Population

Abstract

This essay examines how local village residents perceive the former NationalSocialist concentration camp Neuengamme. The essential question here ishow the former camp is retained in the memories of the villages today, if theyconsciously remember it at all. If it is the case that they do, then it is worthasking how these memories are shared and passed on from one generation tothe next. In this, it is interesting to examine how supra-regional policies ofremembrance interact with local memory on-site. The main methodologicalinstrument used to explore these problems is oral history. Seventeen biographicalinterviews with local residents of different ages were conductedand then analysed with regard to Maurice Halbwachs’s fundamental theoreticalconcepts of memory. The author examines the relationship between individualand local memory frameworks and public discourse on remembrancein Germany. Rather than providing definite answers, the author reveals disruptions,dissonances and conflicts between the different memory frameworksand offers these for further discussion.