Why Testimony Matters

Our intervention is grounded in a deeply human and emotional approach, rooted in personal and family stories. By sharing impactful episodes of the Shoah through the history of deported relatives, the main goal is to create a genuine connection with students. Far from being a mere historical lecture, the testimony engages young people on an emotional level, encouraging them to feel and reflect.

This approach complements traditional history lessons by offering a lived, embodied dimension that fosters engagement and identification. Rather than simply transmitting facts, testimony enables students to internalize the story and find echoes of it within their own experiences.

Why Testimony?

Annette Wieviorka, in The Era of the Witness (1998), emphasizes that “direct testimony plays an essential role in the transmission of memory, precisely because it involves a strong interpersonal relationship and a living form of communication.”

Similarly, Gérald Bronner warns against “a purely factual approach to history, which, although necessary, may lack emotional resonance and risk generating a kind of cognitive indifference.”

Henri Frenay wrote in The Night Will End (1973): “History can only be understood at a human level, through the uniqueness of individual destinies. Figures and summaries are not enough to grasp its full meaning.” In The Resistance 1940–1945 (1976), he also cautioned against a cold, detached view of the past, insisting on the need to bring history to life through those who lived it.

This reflection perfectly illustrates our approach: it is not merely about recounting facts, but about embodying them through personal narratives, allowing students to grasp the human impact of these events and to question the mechanisms of hatred and exclusion.