Activating Archives Against Revisionism, Denialism and Propaganda

Archives have prominent roles in memory work. They do not preserve or carry memories per se but provide documentary and material sources for collective memory creation and, increasingly, space for memorialization. A 2020 UN report on memory practices in the aftermath of grave human rights abuses explicitly relates the effectiveness of memorialization—the “fifth pillar of transitional justice”—to the existence of and access to relevant archives.