In Solna, there is a place which is said not to exist in Sweden: an “authentic site” of Nazi persecution. Until recently, the site of the graves of around 100 Holocaust victims (mostly young women) had been an almost entirely forgotten and overlooked part not only of Stockholm’s Northern Cemetery, but also of Stockholm’s – and, indeed, Sweden’s – history and cultural heritage. Now, the small amount of light being shed on the site is blotched with tension and controversy which reflect issues of custodianship and responsibility for the memory and memorialization of these victims of the Holocaust in Sweden. This paper focuses not on this friction, but rather on problematizing the issues surrounding it as they pertain to the entanglements of history, memory, and cultural heritage inherent in this urban site.

I argue that this part of Stockholm’s landscape is not only an authentic site of Holocaust history in Sweden, but also one which “belongs” not just to the Swedish Jewish community, but to the urban community of Stockholm and to Swedish society, as well as to diverse international and transnational communities. Recognizing and encouraging multiple claimants of the intertwined history and cultural heritage ingrained in this site to engage in shared responsibility and custodianship would, I contend, "activate" the site; locating it as a tangible and important part of the history of Nazi persecution and guiding researchers and scholars to the wealth of significant archival material related to it. In so doing, the Holocaust need no longer exist in Sweden only as a physically and temporally remote “event,” but rather a continuum which played out – and continues to play out – in Sweden, where tangible evidence and traces are embedded in the topography. These arguments are particularly relevant considering the plans for establishing a Holocaust museum in Sweden.