In East Germany the traces of the antifascist memory of the GDR-era are still visible: whether it is difficult to know their relevance for the everyday life of East Germans, their political manipulation is evident. That concerns not only people who feel nostalgic for the German Democratic Republic but also those who support

the idea it was a totalitarian state and consider so it is necessary crossing out its vestiges. The removal of a memory is often functional to legitimate other versions of the past that can also lead to relativize the National Socialism. In this regard the idea that the antifascist memory was only an ideology on one hands delegitimizes its contents (mainly the communist resistance), on the other hands it can favor that other forms of irreflexive memory emerge in the public discourses. Reflecting upon the ‘heritage’ of the GDR-Antifascism can then highlight the various strategies of memory in the reunified Germany. In particular the paper shall focuses on two aspects. First, by remembering the Holocaust in public discourses we find frequently references to the GDR dictatorship. Second, the construction of a collective memory means reworking not only different pasts but also different forms of remembering. To sum up the aim is to contextualize the GDR-memory of the national socialism historically and culturally. This perspective allows thus to reflect upon the possibility of a new frame for the public memory of the Holocaust and of the National Socialism, based on the idea of taking care of own past. Whether the result is not a shared memory, the exchange of different historical experiences can avoid relativizing attitudes towards both German dictatorships.