This article traces the development of the politics of memory of the European Union. It analyses how the EU has slowly moved into a policy field that until then had been the exclusive prerogative of the nation state. It discusses the role that the Holocaust has played for the promotion of a European founding myth and how it transformed into the yardstick with which other political developments are being measured. By concentrating in particular on the last decades, it uncovers the main memory conflicts arising within the European Union after each enlargement and analyses how the different institutions deal with them. It furthermore investigates to what extent and by whom the antitotalitarian paradigm is being promoted and the consequences this has within the EU.
