In Search of Lies: Historians Against Holocaust Forgery

Abstract

History has always been confronted with lies. As Anthony Grafton argues, forgery is a counterpart to the search for the truth, and can even stimulate procedures for attesting and verifying historical knowledge. This paper investigates two contemporary attempts carried out by professional historians to uncover lies. Pierre Vidal-Naquet, in “The Killers of Memory”, and Deborah E. Lipstadt, in “Denial”, have opposed Holocaust denialism and, in this struggle against lies, have made explicit some of the basic assumptions of the historical operation. I seek to discuss key notions that guide the historical craft, such as truth, proof, and autopsy; claimed as fundamental tools in the fight against the denialist practices. The initiatives of Vidal-Naquet and Lipstadt allow us to understand not only the resources available and the possibilities offered to historians but also the institutional limitations in the continuous and pressing task of identifying and confronting lies.