This essay provides a rhetorical analysis of the "Wilkomirski" Affair and some of the recent public debates that have discussed the importance of childhood memoirs and the formation of authentic Holocaust identities. The author argues that rhetorical processes are involved in both the construction of what are deemed "authentic" memoirs and the formation of the standards of evaluation that are used in legitimating those authenticated memories. Moreover, the author contends that the perceptual nature of this authenticating process means that some Holocaust memories are co-produced by authors and their critics. By comparing some of the textual claims that appeared in Wilkomirski's Fragments with some of the audience interpretations of those claims, rhetorical scholars gain an appreciation of the polysemic nature of first and "second" generation child survivor memoirs. The essay concludes by evaluating the perceived effectiveness of Wilkomirski's performance as a Jewish victim of the Holocaust, and argues that the affective nature of some "prosthetic memories" may occasionally provide us with irresponsible and inauthentic Holocaust memories. (Contains 160 endnotes.)