Horrors of History

I'm currently writing a paper on La Amistad, and one of the articles I've read makes a point I want to explore further. It is discussing the unsanitized and realistic depiction of the trans-Atlantic crossing of slave ships and the author, Joseph K. Adjaye, says:

As painful as this episode of the past is, it cannot and should not be erased from historical memory. 

 I think this is true of most horrors to be found in history. I have a personal obsession with the Rwandan genocide and trying to understand that. The atrocities of history need to be remembered and remain horrific and unsanitized to remind us that they are horrors and should not be repeated.

Quincy Adams in the film Amistad: "Whoever tells the best story wins." Oddly true to history, not just the illustrious court case. Another article I just read for the same class was discussing the representations of WWII in works of history, film and fiction. The grittier, more true-to-life representation of war will likely be forgotten because it's not the one the public wants to hear. And yet it is what should be remembered. If we don't remember how horrible these things actually were, then we are more inclined to repeat them. There is a reason people say history repeats itself. It only takes the right conditions...