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« Articles
Gábor T. Szántó: I remember, you remember – do we remember? Consciousness is remembrance. Remembrance of the individual and the society alike. Memories of personal and social traumas are partly or fully always repressed. The individual as well as the society defends this way against memories offending their consciousness or self-respect, endangering their dignity, the integrity of their personality. This way the evil is alienated in order to be able to maintain the belief in good: the belief in the goodness of the environment, in the goodness of the world or even the belief in their own goodnes. » Anikó Kónya: Personal Past and History: Memoires The originally verbal character of remembering needs little justification; personal stories seem to be closer to speech than to writing even closer than fictional stories. Still, the Goddess of Memory holds a sheet of paper in her left hand and a pen in her right hand. When the storyteller takes a sheet of paper and pen he changes genres: autobiographical remembering taking the form of narration is storytelling and historical writing at the same time. Personal history.» Elie Wiesel: Hope. Despair and Memory Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1986 A Hasidic legend tells us that the great Rabbi Baal Shem Tov, Master of the Good Name, also known as the Besht, undertook an urgent and perilous mission: to hasten the coming of the Messiah. The Jewish people, all humanity were suffering too much, beset by too many evils. They had to be saved, and swiftly. For having tried to meddle with the history, the Besht was punished; banished along with his faithful servant to a distant land. In despair, the servant implored his master to exercise his mysterious powers in order to bring them both home. "Impossible," the Besht replied. "My powers have been taken from me." "Then, please, say a prayer, recite a litany, work a miracle." "Impossible," the Master replied, "I have forgotten everything." They both fell to weeping. » Photographs Documenting the Holocaust in Hungary
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