We will underline the moral dimension of testimonies and try to show that the knowledge that issues of it is based on practical recognition. I will approach a peculiar type of deposition, that reconstructs repressive practices of totalitarian societies, in particular the Communists societies. Thanks to its remissive and evocative effectiveness the testimonial narratives hold a proper way to approach ethical questions that leave a sample of the totalitarian logic. Therefore the testimonial expression (and its fictional parallels) will not be used mainly in the quality of historical source, but as principle and bedding for a political judgment. It is thus the question: what owes the historian to testimony? Doesn't the servant of Clio stay exposed to it?
Testimony; Totalitarianism; Narrative; Veracity; Attestation