Holocaust Survivor Testimonies: Time, Methodology and Memory

Holocaust Survivor Testimonies:

Time, Methodology and Memory

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

The purpose of my request for Fall 2010 sabbatical leave is to allow for the research necessary to initiate my study of Holocaust survivor testimonies. During the requested semester, I will begin investigating the characteristics of both large scale national oral history projects as well as smaller local and regional efforts to collect testimonies from Holocaust Survivors. At the end of the semester, I will have the necessary data to begin analyzing my results and begin writing for publication.

DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT

During this, the initial stages of a new research project, I will begin to accumulate data that specifically informs the processes attendant to interviewing Holocaust survivors. In the 65 years since the end of World War II, there have been well over 100 academic institutions, memorial organizations and individual scholars who have interviewed and collected oral histories of Holocaust survivors (http://www.ushmm.org/research/collections/oralhistory/search/). These efforts are mainly the work of Jewish organizations and the major collections of testimonies have been with Jewish survivors. But some collections also focus on and include and other Holocaust survivor groups. The beginning stages of my research will include gathering information on the scale, scope, processes and methodology used in the largest interview projects (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Voices of the Shoah Project and the Fortunoff Online Video Archive at Yale University). The preliminary phase of my project will focus on a comparative analysis of the rationales, formulations and goals of the interview activities.

Proposed Research

With ...

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...the information was collected) affected the nature of the information solicited, the responses of the interviewees and the process of transcription.

While transcriptions are less troublesome in the age of the video testimony, I believe interviewer training and qualifications; the construction of interview guides and the goals of the sponsoring organization may have shaped the nature of the data that was (and is still being) collected. This study will contribute to the fields of qualitative sociology by exploring the influence and interplay between methodology, culture and history. It will also provide insights into the effects of time and culture on the content and nature of Holocaust survivor testimonies. As such, I hope it will also more generally contribute to the fields of Holocaust studies, sociological methodology as well as to the sociology of knowledge.