Understanding historical atrocities requires resisting them rather than explaining them away.
Evidence
I did not wish to explain the Holocaust – but to better understand modernity. I thought then that in terms of the ordinary meaning of the idea of explanation (presenting an event as a chain of causes and effects) all that was to be done to explain the Holocaust as an event in history had been done already. … But such further research could only be of the ‘more of the same’ nature. The volume of facts would grow, but not necessarily the knowledge or the comprehension of the process. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 629 (
#qualifies, via linked claim)
[S]omebody in each era must make clear the facts with utter disregard to his own wish and desire and belief. What we have got to know, so far as possible, are the things that actually happened in the world… . [T]he historian has no right, posing as scientist, to conceal or distort facts; and until we distinguish between these two functions of the chronicler of human action, we are going to render it easy for a muddled world out of sheer ignorance to make the same mistake ten times over. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1073 (
#expands, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Historical explanation of the Holocaust does not yield comprehension of its meaning for modernity. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 629; Historians who distort facts doom the world to repeat mistakes. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1073
Related
- Historical explanation of the Holocaust does not yield comprehension of its meaning for modernity. (similarity 0.87)
- Comprehending the Holocaust requires breaking its own unfamiliar code (similarity 0.82)
- The Holocaust rendered Western civilization itself incomprehensible, not just the event. (similarity 0.81)
- Historians who distort facts doom the world to repeat mistakes. (similarity 0.80)
Broader Connections
- Historical explanation of the Holocaust does not yield comprehension of its meaning for modernity.
#qualifies(0.82) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 629 - Historians who distort facts doom the world to repeat mistakes.
#expands(0.75) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1073