Wieviorka, Annette. The Witness in History.

In this article, Annette Wieviorka provides a history of the Holocaust witness and their testimonies. She explains that, although many memoirs, diaries and literature were written by Holocaust survivors, they did not penetrate the public sphere until after the Eichmann trial. Prosecutor Gideon Hausner used witness testimonies as documentation. This legitimised the testimonies, because of the political and legal setting in which they were used. The survivors of the Holocaust were hereby finally recognised, and seen as bearers of history. Wieviorka also discusses the concept of the Americanisation of the Holocaust, of which Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List and his Jewish Film Archive are examples. The Americanisation of the Holocaust involves both a transplantation from Europe, where the Holocaust occurred, to the U.S., as well as creating a new vision on the Holocaust, in which the individual – the survivor – is replaced by the concept of transmission, mainly through visual media. Wieviorka concludes by outlining the possible conflict between the historian’s search for truth and the witness’s own memory. Nevertheless the historian can still listen to testimony without looking for truth, but rather to encounter a human individual and their story.

Author of this entry: Nynke Hartvelt

Wieviorka, Annette. “The Witness in History.” Poetics Today vol. 27, no. 2 (Summer 2006): 385-397. https://doi.org/10.1215/03335372-2005-009