The Introduction explores the notion of ‘disturbing pasts’ in relation to the experiences of violence and genocide of the Second World War. These experiences both continue to disturb a later present and the past itself is disturbed by subsequent responses to it. The notion of disturbance raises urgent theoretical questions that run throughout the volume: who is disturbing whom; how is the disturbance made; why are we disturbed; and how disturbed are we? The introduction also considers the widespread use of the term 'collective memory' for approaching the past. It argues rather for the nuanced exploration of narratives about the past that are produced, used and referred to by various communities of experience, connection and identification.