Transitional justice and the construction of collective memory. A comparison of the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide

Abstract

This thesis examines how transitional justice mechanisms contribute to the production and public legitimation of collective memory in post-genocide societies. To address this question, the research compares two well-documented cases of twentieth-century genocide, the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide, in which radically different transitional justice mechanisms were adopted. The comparative analysis demonstrates that such mechanisms shape different regimes of collective memory, while also revealing common structural patterns. In both cases, processes of memorialisation were marked by exclusion and selectivity, with official narratives reflecting the interests of dominant political actors and systematically excluding uncomfortable aspects of their own past. The research further shows that, once institutionalised, collective memory tends to become a political resource mobilised to legitimise power and shape collective identities. At the same time, competing memories persist at the margins of the official narrative, resisting complete suppression. This thesis therefore concludes that the challenge facing post-conflict societies is not to replace oblivion with a single authoritative memory, but to preserve the coexistence of competing memories while preventing any one of them from monopolising public understanding of the past. Keywords: Transitional Justice; Collective Memory; Comparative Analysis; Holocaust; Rwandan Genocide; Post-Conflict Societies; Memory Politics.