In class wrork

Can one talk meaningfully of a historical fact? How far can we speak with certainty about anything in the past?
History is comprised only partly of facts the rest is the meaning historians give to those facts. Historians can only speak with as much certainty about the past as they can about their own assumptions of the facts, even the assumption that the memoir or speech we are reading is a fact is dependent relies on whether or not we believe it's a fact. There would be no point to history if historical facts had no meaning. In IRL 11, a recent discovery has been made that what was once believed to be Hitler's skull, actually belongs to a woman. All this time it has been a historical fact that Hitler committed suicide, this fact has comforted millions of people all over the world. If Hitler had not died but escaped, the world would have been a very different place with this knowledge at hand. Everyone would have been looking for him and perhaps the war might not have ended the way it did. The fact that Hitler died is certainly a meaningful piece of history. IRL 10 talks about the removal of Mao from certain Chinese textbooks. Mao's role in China is certainly a meaningful piece of history, you can still see his face plastered up on walls in schools and the current form of government in China has evolved from the government that Mao established. Mao completely changed the nation of China, and to erase him from a Chinese history book would mean the exclusion of many meaningful historical facts. In IRL 9, the current leader of Russia is attempting to stop a revival of Stalin in certain radical groups in Russia. The memory of Stalin obviously carries some meaning to the people of Russia, especially the ones seeking to revive him. The fact that people make an effort to maintain a piece of history means that they must have some certainty in its validity as a historical fact. And their efforts also symbolize that this historical fact carries some value or meaning to them.