ABSTRACT
Elie Wiesel tells us that remembering the Holocaust does not mean forgiving the perpetrators. Remembering the Holocaust does not mean making “meaning” out of it either. Lawrence Langer (1998) comments that “When asked if there were any meaning in the Holocaust, historian Raul Hilberg is said to have replied “I hope not.”” (p. xvi). The Holocaust and its remembrance is difficult and yields difficult memories devoid of meaning. But this lack, this void, this meaninglessness does not necessarily slide into nihilism because memory work, as I see it, is a form of justice. As Edith Wyschogrod (1998) points out, the memory worker makes “a promise to the dead to tell the truth about the past” (p. xi). Of course, this “truth” is not absolute but rather yields “truths” which reflect differing perspectives and interpretations. Some truths are more adequate than others. A radical relativism will not do.
