Freie Universität Berlin is one of the institutions where the video interviews from the “Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies” are available.

Since 1979, the “Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies” at Yale University has been recording testimonies from Holocaust survivors in order to preserve their memories and make them available to researchers and the interested public. Initiated by Laurel Fox Vlock, Dori Laub, William Rosenberg, and Geoffrey Hartman, the archive is considered a pioneer of videotaped oral history. Today, the collection comprises more than 4,400 interviews with a total duration of over 12,000 hours.

The interviewees recount their experiences of survival in hiding and in concentration and extermination camps, as well as their experiences as resistance fighters and liberators. The interview method used in the videos places particular emphasis on allowing the survivors to structure their own narratives. In this way, the interviewees are recognized as experts on their own life stories.

In a media room (Room 113 G) at the Central Library, researchers from Freie Universität Berlin as well as external users can access the Fortunoff Video Archive  after contacting us via email.

The collection is available digitally via the Aviary platform. Research can be conducted online after registration.
To view the interviews, users must be on the network of Freie Universität or one of the other institutions collaborating with Yale University.

Contact:

Digital Interview Collections
Verena Nägel
Tel: 0049 30 838 525 33
Email: interviewsammlungen@ub.fu-berlin.de