Places of Memory The Case of the House of the Wannsee Conference

In 1942, a group of high-ranking Nazis came together in a villa in Berlin to discuss the Final Solution, during what is now called the Wannsee Conference. Fifty years later that same villa was turned into a memorial site and museum for one of the most infamous episodes of the history of the Holocaust. Today, hundreds of people a day visit the house to learn about its history. Why did it take so long for the house to become a 'site of memory'? And what happened to the house in the meantime? This book takes the case of the House of the Wannsee Conference as a starting point to investigate how and why buildings and places transform from regular places to 'carriers of memory'. How can a house become haunted by its past? And why do we visit historical places to get a sense of the past?

Katie Digan studied history and philosophy in Groningen, Dublin and Amsterdam. She graduated Cum Laude with a degree in history in 2013 and now works for the research department of the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Netherlands, and the National Committee for 4 and 5 May.

Introduction
1. An Introduction to Space and Place
2. The Conference and the House
3. The Discussion about the Haus Am Grossen Wannsee 56-58 in the West-German Press
4. Memory Space and Memory Place
5. Authenticity
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index