Representations of Authenticity: Revealing Memorial Places of Hiding in Berlin and Budapest

ABSTRACT This paper examines the dynamic process through which two memorial places – the Museum Otto Weidt’s Workshop for the Blind in Berlin and the Memorial Room of the Glass House in Budapest – are reframed as ‘authentic’ memorial places of WWII. Revisiting the concept of authenticity, we study two kinds of reconstructions: (1) the exhibitions at the Museum and the Memorial Room, and (2) the life stories of two women for whom these sites served as shelters during their persecution. Through these, our aim is to reconnect places, objects and people to each other, and in doing so, examine how post-memory works.