Chain of Testimony: The Holocaust Researcher as Surrogate Witness

Karpf, Anne (2013) Chain of Testimony: The Holocaust Researcher as Surrogate Witness. In: Representing Auscwitz: At the Margins of Testimony. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hampshire, pp. 85-103. ISBN 978-1-137-29768-6

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Abstract / Description

Despite extensive critical debate, a positivist view of historical research which aspires to a dispassionate engagement with sources is still rife. Yet certain types of traumatic material, such as survivors' testimony and the Scrolls of Auschwitz, evoke powerful emotions and can stimulate in the researcher various kinds of phantasy. Is there some way that we can address these issues without ‘psychologising’ the Holocaust and Holocaust research? Can we simultaneously respect the historical material, the memory of the victims and the often unruly feelings that Holocaust research can excite? Can rigorous analysis sit comfortably alongside a more psycho-dynamically reflexive stance, and might the process of research be enriched by it?

This paper discusses these issues through the concept of a ‘chain of testimony’ into which the researcher is inserted, thereby becoming in some sense a surrogate witness. It reflects upon the psycho-social dimensions of my own work and that of other children of Holocaust survivors, as well as other researchers in the field, including those examining the Scrolls of Auschwitz.

Item Type:	Book Section
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Holocaust research; Auschwitz survivors; Scrolls of Auschwitz; chain of testimony
Subjects:	100 Philosophy & psychology > 150 Psychology 200 Religion > 290 Other religions 300 Social sciences 800 Literature & rhetoric 900 History & geography > 940 History of Europe
Department:	The School of Art, Architecture and Design
Depositing User:	Anne Karpf
Date Deposited:	06 May 2016 10:43
Last Modified:	21 Jun 2018 07:38
URI:	https://repository.londonmet.ac.uk/id/eprint/988

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