turn traces of the past into an important foundation for deeper and more honest engagement with history.
Learning from the silences
Each visit provides invaluable input for the forthcoming Safeguarding Sites charter. “All sites face challenges. Our aim is to produce a truly holistic heritage charter for Holocaust sites to help them address these,” Dr. Carr explained. “And this means becoming familiar with sites with a wide range of challenges, and in different geographical and political areas. It’s like weaving a huge tapestry. Each visit and each conversation we have with site managers, local tour guides, political representatives, and communities provides us with another colorful thread.”
The Lithuania visit signaled to the team that their draft heritage charter should include guidance on addressing gaps and silences. It was, they came to realize, an issue they had come across before on a previous site visit. “Visiting one site improves our understanding of other sites,” Dr. Carr said.
It also sharpened their understanding of the role sites will play in the future in countering distortion and safeguarding the record of the Holocaust and the genocide of the Roma. “In the future,” Dr. Carr said, “when we can no longer depend on survivors to fill in the gaps, sites will bear a special responsibility to say what is left unsaid. Our duty today, as the guardians of these sites for our generation, is to make sure they are prepared to do so.”