This essay surveys the debate on the Holocaust that is located within wider histories of mass and especially colonial violence. The author asks whether the lens of post-colonial studies might offer greater mutual understanding in an often intemperate discourse. He argues that the protagonists in the debate are united by a common desire to what appears to be, from their different vantage points, the ethical demands of the Holocaust. Ultimately such a debate reveals the instability of the past and the need for scholars to accept the provisional and political nature of their narratives.