Samenvatting

This essay analyses the global rise and various meanings of musealised prisons and torture centres. As sites of memory, they refer to painful, often gruesome episodes from the past. They use the same museum grammar, the roots of which can be traced back to the musealisation of Nazi concentration and extermination camps, in particular Majdanek at the end of the Second World War. Further research shows that despite the similarities in form, the meaning of all these memorial sites may vary widely. In a country like Argentina, these sites of terror are primarily symbols of crimes against humanity and human rights violations, while in the Baltic States and Hungary, among others, they primarily refer to a national victimhood; as theatres of remembrance, they are a source of national identity. The study of such places can give us a lot of insight into the political relations within, but also between countries.