Abstract
What happens when the invisible is made visible, when knowledge relegated to society’s margins or swept under its carpet is suddenly inserted into the public domain? The iconic images of German civilians forced to view the newly liberated Nazi camps, standing at the edges of hastily dug trenches full of emaciated bodies are emblematic of an era in which we have faced not only previously unimaginable episodes of mass violence, but have been consternated by how we might engage with these pasts: who should look, at what, how, and to what end? There is an enduring sense that reluctant publics must be forced to confront horrific realities with which we may be somehow complicit—if only in our desire not to really know.
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© 2011 Erica Lehrer, Cynthia E. Milton and Monica Eileen Patterson
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Lehrer, E., Milton, C.E. (2011). Introduction: Witnesses to Witnessing. In: Lehrer, E., Milton, C.E., Patterson, M.E. (eds) Curating Difficult Knowledge. Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230319554_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230319554_1
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