Why Holocaust Testimony is Important, and How Psychoanalytic Interpretation Can Help…But Only to a Point

Interpreting the testimony of Holocaust survivors from a psychoanalytic perspective involves a number of risks. Perhaps the gravest risk is disrespect to those who have suffered. Based upon my original research in the Fortunoff Video Archives at Yale University, I argue that a proper psychoanalytic interpretation can help us understand not merely the suffering of survivors, but remind us of an equally important fact: that for every torment there was a tormenter, for every degradation a degrader, for every humiliation one who inflicted it. For every death a murderer and for every moment of hopeless despair one who was responsible. We listen to witnesses in order to understand their suffering, and we seek to understand their suffering in order to understand better regimes of organized terror and the role they play in our lives. It is a simple point, but evidently easy to forget. We listen to witnesses in order to remember better that their suffering comes at the hands of regimes that are made of people. People who often enjoyed belonging to such regimes and participating in their crimes, even - or especially - when these regimes are called nations. Psychoanalysis beginning with Freud has had more than a few words to say about such topics, and it is in this spirit that I bring psychoanalysis to bear on testimony.