Trauma and allegory: truthfulness in fact and fiction. Making a private archive productive

Herengracht 401 (H401), until 2019 known as Castrum Peregrini, represents the complex and intriguing history of a hermetic community artists scholars in Amsterdam which was formed years Nazi occupation The Netherlands, 1940–1945.This article attempts to take stock on what we have learned these ten about place, an indicator memory politics. It also reflects hermeneutic gap cannot know H401’s lack experiential knowledge eyewitnesses. As author argues below, site H401 shows how ‘hermeneutic gap’ can offer chance make archive, such case ‘the house 401’, productive meaningful through artistic practice research.