ABSTRACT
Any attempt to begin will always mark out an opening, giving rise, within it, to a site, a further opening that is still to be completed. It thus remains open. It will be here that the subject in question intrudes. In this instance, there are three beginnings. They are connected and thus admit a complexity of subject and a complex of sites. It is the character of this occurrence, namely the Shoah, that is of concern here. The problematic element lies in the extent to which itthe occurrence in question, its character-can be stated. As an approach, the enduring problem is one of thinking this occurrence, allowing it-and in using ‘it’, acknowledging, without hesitation, the poverty of any form of generalityto arise as a demand for philosophy. This demand will, in this instance, be taken up in relation to Walter Benjamin’s ‘Fate and Character’. The twofold nature of the demand will already work to situate the present. As beginnings, therefore, they will cross.
