group identities are ambiguous and poorly defined. In such contexts, standard approaches to the construction of the past are difficult to apply. This article contains a consideration of one such case, the Jewish community of Copenhagen, Denmark. A variety of Jewish accounts of the rescue of the Danish Jews from the Nazis in 1943 are analyzed. Emerging from a complex and deeply fragmented community, these narratives defy abstraction into a group version of the event. Thematically. however, all address problems of sameness and difference endemic to Danish Jewish life. A focus on such thematic issues allows a cultural analysis of the construction of the past, even where group identities are fragmented and incoherent, history, Denmark, Jews, invention of tradition, identity Introduction On October 1, 1943, as the setting sun inaugurated the Jewish New Year, a sadly familiar story began to unfold on the streets of Copenhagen. Gestapo troops began quietly surrounding Jewish homes, shops, and institutions