Kommunismens eftermæle Museer og erindringspolitik i Østeuropa

In the post socialist countries the memory of communism is in the making. How to remember the period between WW2 and the fall of the Soviet Union is a disputed and contested subject in dissertations, in the activities of the so called institutes of national commemoration, founded in several post socialist states, in movies, in conferences, in commemorations and not least in museums. This article investigate how he heritage of communism is handled, collected and exhibited in some museums founded after 1989 in Hungary, Lithuania, Romania and Germany. The museums analysed are the “House of Terror” in Budapest, “The Museum of Genocide Victims” in Vilnius, “The Memorial of the Victims of Communism and of the Resistance” in Sighet (Romania) and “The DDR museum” in Berlin. These museums of communism are analysed in the framework of politics of memory and culture of memory. My approach is influenced by the New Museology putting techniques of representation in focus. By examining the staging of com- munism in museums I will not only find out what pictures of communism are produced, but also what effects politically and as regards identity these representations have. It is not my purpose to find out if the museum representations are true or in agreement with historical facts, but rather how the staging of communism in museums interacts with, constitute and change reality.