The Holocaust is viewed as a universal rift of civilization that cannot be integrated either in a personal history or in a national history. Thus, any attempt to remember or explain the Holocaust underlies a temptation of closure. The latest controversy on Daniel Goldhagen's book Hitler's Willing Executioners shows how this closure can be achieved through the process of remembering. Two patterns of interpretation of this discourse will be formulated: One centers around issues of generational conflicts, the other around the controversy as a religious dramatization, which provides a form of deliverance.