Uncertainty in Holocaust diaries: between lived experience and generative force

This article examines two Holocaust diaries – Emil Dorian’s Romanian diary and Hélène Berr’s Journal – from the perspective of uncertainty. It explores how political, affective, and cognitive instability shaped both writers’ entries and argues that uncertainty was not merely a backdrop but a structuring element and generative force. As such, it influenced the perceptions, emotions, thoughts, and actions of Jews across Europe during this period and left its mark on both the form and function of these sources. Uncertainty thus emerges as a powerful interpretive lens for better understanding these documents in particular and the history of the Holocaust in general.