Abstract
Drawing on his experience of researching, writing and then touring his "Disappeared" around the world, Daniel Mendelsohn explores the significance of the Shoah as both a historical and a literary event, as time passes and the event belongs to a new generation of writers and readers, who no longer have direct contact with the event itself. Somewhat provocatively, he suggests that the "never forget" injunction is, in essence, anti-literary: literature - because it forges a vast, manageable narrative out of historical events for cultures to use - must "forget" individual histories, smoothing and shaping particular memories into the parables we need to live.
