Both incest and the Holocaust have been subject to furious…
““Both incest and the Holocaust have been subject to furious denial by perpetrators and other individuals and by highly organised groups such as the False Memory Syndrome Foundation and the Committee for Historical Review. Incest and the Holocaust are vulnerable to this kind of concerted denial because of their unfathomability, the unjustifiability, and the threat they pose to the politics of patriarchy and anti-Semitism respectively. Over and over, survivors of the Holocaust attest that they were warned of what was happening in Poland but could not believe it at the time, could not believe it later as it was happening to them, and still to this day cannot believe what they, at the same time, know to have occurred. For Holocaust deniers this is a felicitous twist, for their arguments denying the Holocaust and therefore the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state capitalize on the discrepancies of faded memory. In the case of incest, although post-traumatic stress disorder, amnesia, and dissociation represent some of the mind's strategies for comprehending the incomprehensible, incest deniers have taken advantage of inconsistencies to discredit survivor testimony.””
About This Quote
This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.
Denial of horrific abuses exploits memory gaps and political agendas to discredit survivors and legitimize oppression.
In simple terms: Denial uses memory flaws to silence victims.
Recognize and challenge denial tactics.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- academic research
- human rights advocacy
- therapy
- public policy
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- How do power structures enable denial?
- What evidence can protect survivor truth?
Denial may be countered by robust evidence and survivor narratives.