Multidirectional Memory and State-Authorised Museums: Kazerne Dossin’s Comparative Atrocity Remembrance

Abstract

This article examines Kazerne Dossin’s comparative approach to atrocity remembrance which frames human rights abuses, including those affecting migrants and refugees, through the Holocaust. In doing so, it contributes to scholarship exploring the dynamic, multidirectional movement of memories in an era of intensified global interconnectedness. Considering the impact of travelling memories, this paper reveals that their border-crossing nature–now conceptualised as incessantly wandering–does not necessarily make them more inclusive of marginalised communities. This is because state-authorised forms of remembrance do not express an unbiased solidarity with all violence-affected communities. Instead, they are rooted in institutional power structures that distribute resources selectively, thereby fuelling competition amongst memory actors. This analysis uses meeting reports, expert interviews with heritage professionals, exhibition content analyses, and secondary literature, focusing on the comparative Holocaust remembrance approach developed by Kazerne Dossin in Belgium and implemented at the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Covering the timeframe from 2000 to 2016, it unearths that the memory actors successfully promoted their approach by preserving the Holocaust’s paradigmatic status. This position, backed by dominant political frameworks of EU-based Holocaust commemoration, acts as a limiting factor in realising Holocaust memory’s full multidirectional potential which depends on a context-sensitive mode of comparison.