An immediate and violent impulse: Holocaust survivor testimony in the first years after liberation

Following their liberation, a number of problems faced Holocaust survivors. What could they hope for? What still remained? What effect did their past exert? Evidence suggests there was a brief period in the war's immediate aftermath when survivors responded more hopefully than they would even a few years later. Early retelling was characterised by denial. But what exactly constitutes "denial" in this context? Does it denote a sentimental insistence that humanity will listen, a determination to lower one's expectations? It is possible to hold fast to the justice of a claim while knowing it has virtually no chance of realisation.