2024 Oral History Association Annual Meeting

The oral histories of Holocaust survivors inform how we view and behave in our world today. As we are among the last generation of Holocaust survivors, museum professionals find themselves at a critical moment where Holocaust history is still relevant, living history and yet we must find innovative ways to continue collecting oral histories and sharing eyewitness testimony for generations to come.
Collecting Oral Histories from Holocaust Survivors - Cori Silbernagel

Introducing Cincinnati’s Holocaust survivor community, this session discusses how the group has changed over time and the challenges HHC faces today in supporting survivors and descendants and actively collecting eyewitness testimonies. After reflecting on a long tradition of oral history collection, session participants will learn about HHC’s new Center for Storytelling, a forward-thinking initiative that engages the last generation of Holocaust survivors and their descendants to share personal stories that foster empathy and connection in our world today.

Curating Memorable Museum Experiences - Trinity Johnson

This session discusses the curatorial process behind developing permanent exhibits rooted in past and present oral history collections, and HHC’s ongoing partnership with the USC Shoah Foundation to feature, Dimensions in Testimony, an interactive, digital biography exhibition now permanently exhibited at HHC. Participants will learn about the work happening now interview local Holocaust survivors for Dimensions in Testimony and briefly interact with Al Miller’s interactive biography.

Adding Oral Histories to Our Educational Toolkit - Lauren Karas

Sharing the stories of Holocaust survivors allows school-age learners to make personal connections to history that foster empathy, inspire civic engagement, and challenge them to think critically about human behavior. The oral histories of Holocaust survivors are one of HHC’s most powerful tools in storytelling, and this session will share several case studies of using oral histories to develop student-focused museum experiences and classroom curriculum.

ABSTRACT:  In the years during and after WWII, hundreds of Holocaust survivors arrived in Cincinnati as refugees and rebuilt their lives. After experiencing enormous trauma and loss, some of these survivors organized with the purpose of ensuring that their stories are never forgotten, and their testimonies were recorded though a number of local and national oral history initiatives over many years. Today, these stories are preserved and shared at the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center (HHC), a museum in the historic train station where many Holocaust survivors first arrived in Cincinnati. Led by museum professionals at HHC, this session explores aspects of this decades-long tradition of oral history collection, including the challenges we face today in reaching those who have never shared their story before. This session also explores the ways in which eyewitness testimony serves as a foundation for the curatorial work taking place within the museum and educational work taking place outside of the museum walls. Recognizing that sharing oral histories help us personalize, localize, and humanize the Holocaust, session participants will have an opportunity to listen to oral history segments, interact with a virtual survivor biography, and hear several case studies that explore the successes and challenges of using oral histories to develop student-focused museum experiences and classroom curriculum resources.