Dark Heritage: Memorials, Controversy and the Case of the Macikai Camps

Abstract

Abstract. The article, based on general methodological approaches applicable in the theories of memorial culture and places of memory and historiographical materials, provides an analysis of the interaction between the “dark heritage” and the discourses shaping the politics of history,
the uses of the “dark heritage” objects and the site of the Macikai camps. The article gives an historical overview of the Macikai camps and provides an account of the current state of research of the “dark heritage”, and the heritage of military and defence works in Lithuania. It examines the creation of Holocaust memorials as examples of European “dark heritage” and related controversies, and includes recommendations for the patterns of representation and content of exhibitions at the “dark heritage” Macikai site.