Memory and morality after Auschwitz

Where history and biography cross is the place where true historiography begins: the historian becomes a witness to history not only by relating mere facts and collecting relevant documents, but by asking pertinent and probing questions in regard to their meaning for the present. The ethical demand inherent in this task cannot be overestimated, since it touches the very core of the search for meaning after Auschwitz, picking up the thread of life after destruction, creating historical continuity.