Remembering and Not-Remembering

In ordinary, perceptual reality, remembering means not only recollecting accurately but also the recognition and toleration of the other in relationships. In narcissistic reality, it means creating a delusional memory, in which recognition and toleration of the other are distorted or eliminated, as in the Nazi ‘final solution’. I will speak of ‘remembering true’ for the former and ‘remembering false’ for the latter, which occur simultaneously in knowing and not-knowing, as defences not sufficiently encompassed by repression. There is, therefore, an inherent ambivalence in remembering and in reparation as a form of remembering. I will consider three forms of not-remembering, which are relevant to post-war Germany: undoing, disavowal and splitting. Historical research can be advanced by introducing defences of this sort, which are especially relevant to Holocaust studies, including ambivalence in memorialization as reparation.