7 50 DETROIT THE JEWIS NEWS 15 AV 5755 / AUGUST 11, 1995 CLOSE UP Joining Spielberg's Mission In A Race Against Time West Bloomfield filmmaker Fran Victor is part of the movie director's worldwide Holocaust effort. HEIDI MAE BRATT SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS That's all it takes to dramatically change a life. JENNIFER FINER STAFF WRITER Story on page 30 INSIDE DETROIT Lindsey's Simchah Special W. Bloomfield girl asked for a bat mitzvah. Page 14 BUSINESS Merchants' Mecca Jewish retailers like Birmingham's diversity. Page 39 Contents on page 3 ran Victor was 16 Victor told him about her experience as when she first fell an interviewer of "real people" and de- in love with the scribed some of her work, which includes magic created on- documentaries on sensitive subjects like screen by Steven children and divorce. She sent off a resume Spielberg's thriller and samples, and days later was invited to Jaws. Los Angeles for three days of training. Now she's a Once in California, she met some of the grown woman, a most enthusiastic and committed people mother of two and who were at work on the project, many of an award-winning video and film producer them from the production trailers of in her own right. Jurassic Park at Universal Studios. Their If Spielberg's vision inspired the teen- mission and near-obsession is tied to the ager to make films, then his latest epic pro- race against time. ject — videotaping the testimony of 75,000 An estimated 300,000 Holocaust sur- Holocaust survivors in the next five years to create the first ma- jor archival database — is giv- ing Ms. Victor the chance to do some of the most meaningful work of her career. Ms. Victor and her business partner, William Harder, were chosen by Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, the Spielberg-driv- en force behind the huge Holocaust online project, as the Michigan-area team in the worldwide effort. Since returning from Los Angeles in June, where she trained as an interviewer, Ms. Victor and Mr. Harder have taped three local survivors. "I feel that outside of rais- ing my children, this is the most important thing I'm do- ing with my life," said Ms. Victor, 37, who lives in West Bloomfield. "It's an incredible opportunity to be a part of his- tory, to meet people for whom I have such deep respect and admiration. `They have incredible stories to tell and I feel so privileged to be a conduit to allow them to give their testimony." Bringing the project to Michigan — which Ms. Victor says "really feels good"— start- ed with a blurb she read in The Jewish News. After learning Fran Victor: Recording vivors, many in their 70s and 80s, that the foundation hired an the testimony of live in the United States and else- international director of devel- survivors for history. where. So far, about 10,000 testi- opment, Ms. Victor telephoned monies have been gathered over California to find out if there was anything the years and placed in Holocaust archives, she could do. including the Fortunoff Video Archive for She wound up talking to Michael Engle, Holocaust Testimonies at Yale and the the project's director of production. Ms. Holocaust Memorial Center in West Bloomfield Township. These repositories have been invaluable for research and ed- ucation. But what Mr. Spielberg plans is to cre- ate the largest oral-history archive in ex- istence. The scope is so big, and the technology so advanced, that some of it hasn't been invented. Once the interviews are completed, they will be digitized — con- verted to an electronic format which makes it possible to be put online. Researchers using computers will be able to call up the interviews or portions of them using key words. They'll be able to choose interviews by subject's surname, gender or hometown, a topic mentioned in the inter- view or name of concentration camp. Mr. Spielberg also plans to create educational software based on the interviews that will be accessible to any student in school who knows how to go online. Said Ms. Victor, "This is the permanent AGAINST TIME page 8