Witness Testimonies of the Holocaust and the Meaning of Memory

Abstract

Almost$& years after the events, the conspiracy of silence on the part of bystanders and victims of the Holocaust, is at last beginning to be l~jled and exposed. In its place come re-examination, new historical documentation and, increasingly, eye-witness accounts. Though the former victims are motivated by their last-minute chance to set the historical record straight against what is viewed as the Nazi war against memory, their new eagerness to test@ is tempered by an ambivalence caused by their pain and loss. Meanwhile, the policies of indiference, silent abandonment and quiet collaboration on the part of nearly all the occupied European countries as well as the North American powers are now being exposed and re-evaluated. At the same time, the voice of the child survivors, those who were children during WWZZ, is increasingly being heard. As they break through their previous silence, some of their testimony seems to mark a new perspective. At best, it ofers both to society and to them, the last and youngest eye-witnesses of the Shoah, a renewed opportunity for integration, healing and closure.