Lessons of the Holocaust
The common view held by the community of historians is that there are no, and cannot be, lessons of history; however, up to this day, serious writers continue to seek lessons of the Holocaust. Examines historical and philosophical literature on the Holocaust, and shows that throughout the post-1945 period a broad spectrum of lessons that can be derived from the Holocaust has been proposed by historians, philosophers, writers, journalists, etc. For example, while for Hannah Arendt the lesson is condemnation of bureaucracy and conformism, for Emil Fackenheim it is the imperative to keep fidelity to the Jewish nationhood. There have been Jewish and even Israeli lessons of the Holocaust - e.g. that the Jewish diaspora is doomed and that the Jews need to be strong and to have a state of their own; and there have been universalist lessons - the condemnation of totalitarianism and of "modernity", the imperative of tolerance, of historical memory, etc. Maintains that there are no objective lessons of the Holocaust. The knowledge of past atrocities cannot prevent atrocities in the future.