Fortunoff Archives

http://www.library.yale.edu/testimonies/

About the Archive
Includes introduction, history, and founders of the project. Started in 1979 & deposited at Yale in 1981, many scholars have used the collection, which is comprised of 4,100 testimonies spanning 10,000 recorded hours of videotape. Interviewees were willing individuals with first-hand experience of the Nazi persecutions, including those in hiding, survivors, bystanders, resistants, and liberators. Lawrence Langer used the collection when researching & writing Holocaust Testimonies: The Ruins of Memory.
Excerpts from Testimonies
9 excerpts from testimonies are included here: a Polish survivor from Mlawa ghetto, a Belgian child who survived in hiding, a German witness to Dachau, a Colonel who witnessed Mauthausen, a Czech survivor of Auschwitz, a Dutch rescuer, a Polish survivor of Majdanek, Plaszow, Auschwitz, German child survivor of Ravensbruck, a Gypsy survivor of Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Ravensbruck (testimony in German but translation is transcribed). Listen to the audio testimony and see that the spoken words are transcribed and highlighted so students can follow along. Clips are quite short. Bios are a little longer. “A Must.”
Catalog & Research Guide
Archival information and searching tips to view cataloged record. Additionally, the second edition of the Guide to Yale University Library Holocaust Video Testimonies provides summaries of 567 videotape testimonies of Holocaust survivors and witnesses from the Fortunoff Archive. Cost is $28.50

 

Educational Resources
Videos are available, grouped into three categories. thematic programs such as survivors of St. Louis, survivors’ experience & effects on own children; single-witness programs, some of which are longer versions of the excerpts clips online; and general programs such as Survivors Among Us, testimony from Boston & Hartford area survivors. Two other videos from this category are About the Holocaust & Forever Yesterday. Can be borrowed for around $30.
Publications
Related offerings: books such as Witness: Voices from the Holocaust ($26), related PBS video ($26); newsletter to update about second phase of project

Provided on 3/27/04 by Your Cyber Web Guide, Sheila Hansen, USHMM Mandel Fellow, 2000-2001, Spearfish, South Dakota