Henry R. Holocaust testimony (HVT-4433) interviewed by Geoffrey H. Hartman ,

Videotape testimony of Henry R., a historian and research director at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique. Mr. R. discusses his decision in the 1970s to research the economic history of Vichy; writing his doctoral dissertation on that topic, and incorporating the study of antisemitism and collaboration; initial difficulties obtaining access to the archival material and publishing his book; changes in attitudes resulting from the trials of French collaborators in the 1980s, questions posed by those born after the war, and the changing demographic of French Jewry; open discussion of the Holocaust and the French role based not only on political issues but also moral and ethical concerns; opening of previously closed archives; changed perspectives on oral histories and personal memories; Michael Pollak's role in this change; divergent perspectives of historians and archivists; the importance of the Holocaust in France today; and a new form of antisemitism there.