Neutrality, Objectivity, and Dissociation: Cultural Trauma and Educational Messages in German Holocaust Memorial Sites and Documentation Centers

This article applies the theory of “key educational experiences” to argue that while German memorials and documentation centers provide visitors with ample information about the Third Reich, their tone of neutral objectivity and their strategies of identity dissociation prevent German visitors from identifying with the German past. The sites’ declared educational goals are thus undermined. The author concludes that a post-traumatic pedagogy of repression and evasion is unlikely to create key experiences that will have long-term effects on visitors’ identities.