Witnessing the Disaster

Histories, films, stories, novels, memorials, museums and survivor testimonies involve problems of witnessing: how do those who survived, and those who lived long after the Holocaust, make clear to us what happened? How can we distinguish between more and less authentic accounts? Are histories more adequate descriptors of the horror than narrative? Does the susceptability of survivor accounts to faulty memory and the vestiges of trauma make them less useful as instruments of witness? And how do we authenticate their accuracy without giving those who deny the Holocaust a small but dangerous foothold? These essayists move past the idea that the Holocaust defies representation. They consider the ethical imperatives of Holocaust representation and the tension between history and memory.