The archives of evil: A speech without an author? Ildefonso Nalda Najera in Archiv der KZ-Gedenkstatte Mauthausen

Abstract

Based on the meaning of "archive" found in the L'archeologie du savoir by Michel Foucault and the interpretations that Giorgio Agamben makes of it in Quel che resta di Auschwitz, we present some considerations on the concept of author that we have called "archives of evil". We use this expression to nominate documentary sets resulting from situations or regimes enabling of dissimilar scenarios of violence. These archives were mostly originated in the exercise of institutional functions. Today they are part of the funds of the commonly called "historical memory centers", regulated by the exercise of democratic rights. The biography of Ildefonso Nalda Najera, who died in the Mauthausen Concentration Camp, and the Archiv der KZ-Gedenkstatte Mauthausen, that nowadays holds documents and objects related to the Concentration Camp, constitute the model that has guided this article.