ProfessorGutman

I should like to begin making a methodological point. I am very concerned that not only we will speak in mutually incomprehensible terms and that the. content of our statements will not enable us to discuss the essence of the problem with which we have to deal. We are representatives not only of nations which have suffered greatly over the last centuries, but we also represent a certain generation and we are not only historians, but actual witnesses and activists of a hard epoch. In English they talk of a ‘unique period’. We bear upon our shoulders the weight of an uncommon responsibility, for this generation which has produced so many contradictory testimonies - there are Jewish testimonies and there are Polish testimonies - risks making the world believe that it has nothing clear and believable to say. Perhaps this will all lead to revisionism, to a flight from the truth. This is perfectly possible, for the substance of this period is so terrible and so strange that our human consciousness is inadequate to grasp that such a thing could happen.

The way in which I was taught history enjoined me to tell the truth, as far as the sources indicate that truth and even when it is very painful. I do not know if people learn from history. A small child who burns its fingers only once will not do it again, and yet everyone knows that humanity continues to wage wars, continues to murder, that the same or similar mistakes are committed again and again. So I do not know if people learn from history, but I regard it as our duty as historians to do everything we can to help people to do so. We must therefore always strive to learn, to teach and to speak the truth. It seems to me that we began to air the difficult problems today in the wrong way for there are certain guidelines which we must follow if our discussion is to be fruitful. The country in which I live has achieved many things. It is a very interesting country to be in, but it is not an easy place in which to live.