ABSTRACT
Archives such as the identity cards in Rwanda that mark the onset of genocide also include the identifying insignia in Nazi Germany that 'marked', archived, those to be killed. The archives that mark the commencement of painful events also take us back to the 'home' of the archive through the destruction of books and libraries. Ugresic's description of Berlin's Teufelsberg allows us to further imagine the sequence of 'nows' in the archive. Herman Rapaport speaks of the horror at "their desire to archive their evil, to painstakingly record the physical destruction of the very people they execrate". The archives that mark the commencement of painful events also take us back to the 'home' of the archive through the destruction of books and libraries. The destructions or concealments of archives, be they libraries, museums, or structures of cultural or spiritual importance, also attempt to erase or conceal the histories that came before.
