City Research Online

Abstract

How to balance respect for the testimonial quality of post-Holocaust memoirs while critically analysing their value as historical witness statements? This question is explored through the author’s experience of collaborating on a memoir project with a Jewish subject who, as a child, was hidden in a Catholic convent in Belgium during the Second World War. Using the concepts of ‘collective memory, memory makers and memory consumers’, the author argues that witness statements are most valuable when read and understood within broader issues of political and historical structures. Using the example of Hidden Children’s testimony, the author examines how a range of historical actors can be acknowledged and appropriately recognised by comparing memories and by including appropriate contextual detail. The paper points to future research questions into how post-Holocaust memoirs are received and understood as historical artifacts by memory consumers.

Publication Type:	Article
Publisher Keywords:	memory studies, hidden children, Belgium, post-Holocaust narratives
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General)
Departments:	School of Communication & Creativity > Media, Culture & Creative Industries > English, Publishing & Creative Writing

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