The Hong Kong Holocaust and Tolerance Centre organised a lecture at the Hong Kong Jewish Community Centre by esteemed scholar Dr Alan Rosen on Testimony, Literature and the Holocaust. The event was well attended by community members and many students from local colleges.

One student Fernanda Lai from Li Po Chun United World College Graduating Student provided some insights from the lecture. ‘Why Literature?’ This was the question Dr Alan Rosen posed to us at the beginning of the talk.

History addresses what has happened, literature addresses what could have been. History tries for clarity in language, yet in literature language is viscous, making it conspicuous by its use. The purpose of Holocaust literature, if well taught, “was to break the hearts of students.”

The seminar by Dr Alan Rosen was an insightful experience into Jewish culture as well as a watershed moment in history. By looking at the representation of the Holocaust in poetry, memoirs and diaries, we learnt the “vocabulary of the Holocaust,” and what parts of the language are made conspicuous through the literature, and the role the literature plays in commemorating the Holocaust.