Abstract
The article presents an examination into the French philosophical concept of "devoir de mémoire," or the duty of memory, as propagated by the European community in the 20th-century in response to the Jewish Holocaust. The philosophical arguments of Paul Ricoeur are then examined, noting how he is critical of the concept, how the nature of history and historiography show such an imperative to be impossible, and how his book "La mémoire, l'histoire, l'oublie" has influenced 21st-century debate on the topic.