<p>This article explores the ethical tensions embedded in the construction of historical narratives by organizations. Drawing on qualitative data we analyze how a diverse set of stakeholders (e.g., historians, consultants, heritage managers, marketers) collaboratively shape brand heritage and organizational history. While such collaboration can enrich historical storytelling, our findings reveal ethical frictions and asymmetries rooted in competing professional logics, strategic imperatives, and historical commitments. Mobilizing Ricœur’s theory of memory and forgetting, we develop a typology of memory abuses—repressed, manipulated, and forced—that emerge during the co-construction of corporate narratives. These abuses can compromise historical integrity and distort collective memory, raising critical concerns about historical responsibility. Our study contributes to the literatures on rhetorical history, ANTi-History, and collective memory by showing how history is not only instrumentalized for strategic gain, but also negotiated through ethically charged practices. We offer managerial implications to foster more transparent and ethically informed memory work in organizations. These include ethical storytelling guidelines, interdisciplinary collaboration, and internal mechanisms to guard against narrative distortion. Our work calls for greater accountability in the performative use of history and provides a foundation for future research on the ethical governance of organizational memory.</p>