ABSTRACT
One of the most fundamental problems in understanding the Holocaustthrough testimony is the numbers. By some estimates, there were eight hundred thousand survivors of the camps upon liberation in 1945; many of those died in the months immediately following the end of the war. Of between six and seven million Jews who had direct experience with the Holocaust, something under fewer than ten percent of those capable of testifying to what happened did so. Now, six decades after the event, far fewer remain alive and capable of telling their stories. There are other issues to be accounted for when considering individual testimonies. For one thing, memories fade over time. It stands to reason that those accounts of the Holocaust written after the events have taken place would be less accurate, and perhaps less rich in detail, than those written at the
time of the event’s occurrence. One could conclude that diaries written as events took place would be more accurate than testimonies written after the event, or memoirs written years later.
