ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects upon historico-philosophical questions in regards to violent experience, will try to formulate a definition of those experiences and identify the impact of these definitions upon historiographical investigation. It finds out what historiography can contribute, in particular, to a broader understanding of video testimony from survivors of genocidal events, and why it makes sense for historiography to concern itself with the video testimony of survivors. Historiographical investigation of video testimonies from Holocaust survivors can draw on methodical resources of oral-history research. Referring to Lutz Niethammer, a prominent representative of German oral-history research, Assmann points out three crucial aspects concerning analysis of commemorative sources. Video testimonies from Holocaust survivors as we know them, the camera focused on the survivor, the interviewer often invisible, with little movement, put the testifying person in the center. Video testimony as a historical source shows the survivor as author of his or her testimony, and as a historical subject at the same time.
