it is absolutely essential that as many holocaust survivors and eyewitnesses be interviewed and their testimony documented and notarized so that incontrovertible and corroborative evidence of these atrocities can be passed on to future generations. holocaust denialists have become extremely clever at selecting factoids out of context and assembling misleading citations, footnotes and other half-truths and downright lies to cast doubt on the accepted historical record, and some of their "scholarly" works, although ludicrous today, may appear very convincing to future historians, especially as the years pass, collective memory fades, and other evidence disappears. they have the appearance of versimilitude, and contain just enough truth to be persuasive to someone desperately trying to be objective.

direct eyewitness evidence, affidavits, photographs, video, oral history recordings and transcripts and any contemporary documents which can support them must be assembled and collated to present a case for the future. i have a neighbor who survived the holocaust, and I have spoken to her. it is all i need to convince me, but my hearsay account would not be enough to persuade someone a century from now. already, there are whole populations which question the armenian genocide in turkey, the soviet and maoist genocides were almost swept under the rug, and the shoah is under attack as well, as well as other historical atrocities. some, indeed, i dare not even mention here without provoking those who cannot admit they have happened.

it is only a few more years before everyone who has a direct memory of the holocaust will be dead. and a few more years after that, everyone who was present, even as an infant, will be gone forever. we must never forget.