Overview and Usage
Conditions of Access and Use
Terms of Access:
The collection is open for use with the exception of not yet processed items. The collection is active and ongoing.
Terms of Reproduction and Use:
This collection has been placed in the permanent care, custody, and control of the Holocoust Oral History Archive at Gratz College by the donors of the collection.
Questions concerning rights to use or publish materials from the collection should be addressed to Josey Fisher, Director of the Holocaust Oral History Archive, [email protected].
Scope And Content:
The Holocaust Oral History Archive is one of the earliest and largest collections of Holocaust testimony in the United States. Established in 1979 by Nora Levin (1916-1989), and maintained by a dedicated volunteer staff, the Archive is one of the earliest Holocaust oral history projects in the U.S. documenting a wide range of experiences during the Nazi era and Jewish life in pre-Nazi Europe. Holdings include interviews with over 900 survivors, rescuers, liberators, and other witnesses to the persecution and extermination of the Nazi era, 1933-1945. Special groupings include the testimonies of "Kindertransport" children sheltered in England, the 1985 Gathering of Holocaust Survivors, the 1991 and 1999 Rickshaw Reunions of Shanghai Survivors, and the Vilna Ghetto Fighters. In 1997 these original recordings on audio cassette were shared with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. where they were digitized. These audio files are available on this website along with the accompanying transcripts. This is an ongoing project; new materials will be uploaded as they become available.
Collection And Citation Information
Accruals and Additions:
Further accruals are expected to this collection.
Preferred Citation:
Footnotes and bibliographic references should refer to the Holocaust Oral History Archive and Gratz College.
The recommended citation is:
Interviewee last name, first name. “Title of interview (if any.)*” Interview by First Name Last Name of interviewer. Day Month Year of interview. Unique identifier, Publisher name (title of database or website), Holocaust Oral History Archive. Tuttleman Library, Gratz College. Format (e.g., CD-ROM, Digital audio file, Audiocassette).
Provenance:
All oral histories were recorded at Gratz College, Melrose Park PA, from 1980 to 2006, under the auspices of Nora Levin and Josey Fisher. Transcriptions of the recordings are ongoing. The collection is comprised of interviews produced by Gratz College; interviews from Project Kabed produced by Jerry M. Freimark; and interviews from the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors, Philadelphia, PA, 1985. In 2019, the the ordinal cassette tapes were digitized by the United States Holocaust History Museum, Washington, D.C.
Subjects:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
World War (1939-1945) | 1939-1945
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives
World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, Jewish
World War, 1939-1945 -- Refugees
Jews -- Persecutions -- Germany
Genre and Forms:
Personal Narrative
Acknowledgments:
Holocaust Oral History Archives organizing and transcribing team includes Josey Fisher, Violet Zeitlin, Dori Schwartz, and many more. Processing and organization of this collection for the web was done by Andrew Pollak and Donna Guerin. Website was designed and built by NetCrafters Interactive.
In appreciation to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) for supporting this archival project.