The Holocaust was a tragic event that was an attempt to wipe out the Jewish people. Even though Hitler came close to accomplishing his goal, some Jews were still able to survive and tell their story. The authors Primo Levi and Dori Laub are both survivors of the Holocaust that discuss their narrative of the event. Levi views the Holocaust as a unicum, an unprecedented event that does not yet have a language adequate to it. This helps us understand Laub s idea that the Holocaust is an event that eliminates its own witnesses and that, therefore, makes witnessing impossible. Both authors understand the importance of witnessing this unprecedented event and infer that one must tell their story no matter how inaccurate the testimony may be. Being a witness to such a horrific event like the Holocaust gives an ethical necessity to the witness to tell about the event.
The Holocaust created an event that is impossible to witness because it both physically and psychologically exterminated all of the witnesses. The Nazi s plan was to exterminate all the Jews and leave no evidence of the Holocaust. Their attitude was that even if some proof should remain and some of you survive, people will say that the events you describe are too monstrous to be believed (Levi 11-12).
Thus, if any evidence was left or if anyone survived to tell the story, no body would believe it. The Holocaust was unique in many ways. As Levi states, the Nazi concentration camp system still remains a unicum, both in its extent and its quality (Levi 21).
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He makes this statement to refer to the impossibility of bearing witness to the Holocaust. The major reason why the Holocaust is viewed as a unicum is that the event produced no witnesses (Laub 80).
Not only were the people physically annihilated but also psychologically. The people who survived the Holocaust often claim that they were chosen to be part of the Holocaust and therefore their persecution and execution by the Nazis was actually warranted (Laub 82).
The Holocaust was also made impossible to witness because even the outsiders failed to tell their stories.
The Holocaust is an event that eliminates its own witnesses and that, therefore, makes witnessing impossible. Although it is impossible to witness the Holocaust correctly, we still have an ethical necessity to witness. We must witness in order to keep the Holocaust as a unicum, to keep it from happening again. Never have so many people been killed in such a short period of time. The story behind the Holocaust must be told so that people can understand the evil crimes that were bestowed upon the victims. Many survivors of the Holocaust have made their stories public. It seems as though they want to tell their stories, but the truth is the survivors did not only need to survive to tell their story; they also needed to tell their story in order to survive (Laub 78).
It is always good to talk about one s problems to relieve what has been kept inside for a long time and to reveal one s buried truth in order to move on from the past. Being a witness to this truth is important. We still have an ethical necessity to witness because through witnessing we can find the truth behind what actually happened. It is hard for a survivor of the Holocaust to give an exact testimony of what happened because their eyes are veiled by conventionality. It takes someone like a interviewer of the witness which makes possible something like a repossession of the act of witnessing (Laub 85).
After the interview takes place we now have a better source of the story that brings along the reemerging truth (Laub 85).
Through witnessing the Holocaust we can advance humanity and through witnessing we can help the victims come to a completion.
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Bearing Witness' Bearing Witnesses, Bearing Witness' Essay, Research Paper Bearing Witnesses, Stories of the Holocaust, selected by Hazel Roch man and Darlene Z. Mc Campbell is a wonderful book that illustrates the horror of the Holocaust. I believe that this book helped me to better understand what really happened during the tragic event. This book is made up of many different real life accounts ...
We can refer to the Holocaust as a unicum that created an impossibility and ethical necessity to witness. Laub asserts that the Holocaust is an event that is impossible to witness because of the extermination of both the physical and the psychological evidence. This evidence can be regained through a witness of a witness. By telling the story of what happened, the victim can bring some conclusion to the event.
