Abstract

I am in a difficult situation, being asked as a survivor to talk about people who are no longer with us, for survival always poses the problem of whether we have to deal with an event of a purely biological nature or one that, considered from an intellectual standpoint, is not merely arbitrary. Goethe frequently grappled with exactly this problem — if I may, for a moment, appeal to such a great standard.

A second personal remark: when one has lived as long as I have and belonged to a group that has gained such historical significance, one is constantly considered a kind of historical fragment.