History, memory, and the genre of testimony

Abstract The essay focuses on the relationship between memory and history, which has changed inmanyways under the impact of theHolocaust.Memory that had been discarded by historians as an unreliable and distorting source came to be acknowl-edged as an important factor in the reconstruction of past events, thus advancing from a rival to a partner of historiography. The question to be asked is no longer merely what has happened? but also how was the event experienced, how is it remembered and passed on to succeeding generations? The new mnemo-historical genre of video testimony is analyzed as an archive of trauma stories and set off against other forms of autobiographical discourse, on the one hand, and legal testimonies, on the other. It is argued that its specific value lies in forging a transgenerational link between the faces and voices of victims and those who listen to them, thus transcending the frame of family memory that, as a rule, fades after three generations. History and Memory: Rivals or Partners? Over the last two decades, our approach to the past has become ever more complex and controversial. One of the reasons for this development in the social and cultural sphere is the continuous impact of the Holocaust and the experience of living in the shadow of a historical event that in many ways maintains its presence. The Holocaust, it turns out, is an event It was a great honor for me, indeed, to raise my voice, a German voice, on the occasion of the conference in a unique community of scholars, archivists, remembrancers, and mourn-ers. I do it with my deep gratitude to Geoffrey Hartman, whom I met for the first time in 1972, when he came to lecture onWordsworth at the University of Heidelberg. Somy bond of veneration and friendship with Geoffrey andReneHartman also had an anniversary in 2002