Frequently Asked Questions about In the First Person: The Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
On view at Beinecke Library July 25, 2024 – January 28, 2024
What is included in this exhibition?
In the First Person displays a powerful selection of excerpts from 19 video testimonies that present a history of Nazi atrocities in the voices of those who experienced it. The video testimonies are embedded in a display of rare books, pamphlets, and other print publications from Yale Library collections that present a history of Jewish efforts to document anti-Jewish persecution through eyewitness accounts from the Kishinev pogrom of 1903 through the Holocaust and its aftermath. The exhibit confronts the myth that survivors were silent about their experiences in the immediate post-World War II period and provides further context for understanding the Fortunoff Archive’s historical significance and impact.
Why are you displaying this exhibition now?
This exhibit, which has been in the works for 16 months, marks the 45th anniversary of the first videotaping by the Holocaust Survivors Film Project, a grassroots New Haven community initiative that evolved into the Fortunoff Archive. This project was groundbreaking in its use of video technology to record and document witness testimony. In the First Person is the first large-scale public exhibition of footage from this collection.
What is the Fortunoff Video Archive, and how did it come to be housed at Yale
Library?
In 1979, a grassroots organization, the Holocaust Survivors Film Project, began videotaping Holocaust survivors and witnesses in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1981, the original collection of 183 testimonies was donated to Yale University and became a program and collection of Yale Library the following year. Since then, the Fortunoff Archive has worked to record, collect, and preserve Holocaust witness testimonies and to make its collection available to researchers, educators, and the public. The Fortunoff Archive has also developed curriculum
materials for middle and high schools that focus on historical inquiry and empathetic listening, incorporating the Fortunoff Archive’s method and scholarly approaches to testimony.
The Fortunoff Archive collection now spans the Americas, Europe, and Israel. For more than three decades, its mission has stayed the same: to record and project the stories of those who were there.
How many video testimonies are there in the archive? Can I view the
testimonies in full or view the additional testimonies?
The Fortunoff Archive currently holds more than 4,400 testimonies, which comprise over 12,000 recorded hours of videotape. This exhibit includes only a sampling of the testimonies in the archive.
In addition to the archive at Yale Library, the Fortunoff Archive makes its collection available at access sites worldwide. You can search the archive from anywhere, but to watch testimony, you must be a Yale affiliate, be physically located at an access site, or use an access site VPN/Ezproxy. Go to fortunoff.aviaryplatform.com/ for instructions on how to register to view the testimonies. To find an access site, visit fortunoff.library.yale.edu/research/access-sites/.
What is the local connection to New Haven?
In 1977, after ten years of preparation, a group of survivors, children of survivors, and like-minded activists in New Haven established the first Holocaust memorial built on public land in the United States. The memorial still stands today at Edgewood Park on Whalley Avenue. This was the first time that the mayor of a town put aside a piece of public land specifically for the construction of a Holocaust memorial.
Many of the survivors who helped organize and raise the funds necessary for the construction of this memorial would become the leaders, volunteers, and participants in the Holocaust Survivors Film Project (which later became the Fortunoff Video Archive). The grassroots Holocaust Survivors Film Project began videotaping Holocaust survivors and witnesses in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1979. The original collection of testimonies was donated to Yale University in 1981, and the Fortunoff Archive remains a collection and program of Yale Library today.
How many of the survivors and witnesses are still alive? When were their
testimonies recorded?
The Holocaust Survivors Film Project recorded 183 testimonies between 1979 and 1981. The Fortunoff Archive has been recording since 1981, with the most recent recording taking place in 2023. For demographic reasons, the number of living witnesses is decreasing every year. Still, thousands of survivors are still alive, most of whom were children during the war, and they continue to speak in schools and give testimonies.
How were the testimonies selected for inclusion in this exhibition? Are there
common themes in the testimonies?
It is impossible to tell a complete story of the archive, the survivor experience, or the history of the Holocaust in any single exhibit. The video clips were chosen because they represent common themes or experiences found in the collection, such as the lack of language to express the experiences of the camps; the destruction of a normal moral universe and lack of choice in the ghettos and camps; the survivor’s desire to speak out after the war, especially on behalf of
those who did not survive (and meeting few willing, empathic listeners); the new, ongoing forms of suffering following liberation and the permanent impact of the war on survivors’ lives and well-being; and the value of audiovisual testimony as a unique form of documentation, as, for instance, in the capture of a song in a testimony.
How many Holocaust-era documents are in Yale Library collections, and how
did the library obtain these documents?
Leon Nemoy, the first curator of Hebrew and Arabic literature at Yale’s Sterling Memorial Library, began his tenure at Yale Library in 1923 and acquired many of these items. Yale Library’s Jewish Studies collection comprises about 300,000 items. Among the rare materials are more than 300 Hebraic manuscripts; thousands of premodern and modern printings, ephemera, periodicals, and scores; and about160 archival collections.
How did you choose which documents and manuscripts to display?
We chose items that demonstrated both continuities and breaks in methods of documentation of first-person accounts of anti-Jewish violence from the early 1900s to the aftermath of the Holocaust.
Can I bring a tour group here?
In order to provide the best visitor experience, and in keeping with Yale Library policy and practice, only Yale-led group tours are permitted. Beinecke Library offers introductory tours led by library staff and open to all individuals, on Saturdays at 1:30 p.m. and at 3 p.m. Public tours and admission to Beinecke Library are always free and open to all. Find more visitor information at beinecke.library.yale.edu.
In certain cases, Beinecke Library can arrange library-staff-led tours for schools, civic and community organizations, and similar organized groups. Please note that we require at least three weeks’ notice for these tours. To request a tour please email beinecke.library@yale.edu with the subject line “Tour request” and include your name, the name of your group, the number of visitors, and your requested tour date(s).
What other exhibits are upcoming at Yale Library?
Yale Library welcomes visitors to exhibits at Beinecke Library, Sterling Memorial Library, and other locations across the library system. The library also offers dozens of online exhibits. For more details, visit library.yale.edu/exhibitions. Library exhibits are free and open to all. Check library hours at web.library.yale.edu/buildings.
Is this exhibition related to the Shoah Foundation? How is it different?
The Holocaust Survivors Film Project, which evolved into the Fortunoff Video Archive, predates the Shoah Foundation by 15 years and is unique in its survivor-led approach to capturing testimony. Rather than starting with a set of questions, the interviewers allow survivors to tell their full life story, often going back to early childhood prior to the onset of the Holocaust. The Fortunoff Archive and the USC Shoah Foundation have partnered to allow researchers at both institutions to access each other’s extensive Holocaust archives.
How can I get involved with/learn more about the Fortunoff Archive?
To learn more or for information on how to get involved, email fortunoff.archive@yale.edu or visit fortunoff.library.yale.edu/contact-us/.