arts & entertainment

Who Will Tell Their Stories?

As survivors pass, Holocaust memoir genre braces for significant transformation.

Jeffrey F. Barken

JNS.org

A

s the generation of Holocaust
survivors passes, writers and
researchers acknowledge the
urgent need to ask probing questions
and preserve fading memories. Moving
forward, in the absence of firsthand
accounts, survivors' descendants will
need to assume responsibility for edu-
cating future generations about the
genocide.
In the modern era of self-publishing,
the market for Holocaust literature has
been glutted with personal accounts
of horror, survival, hope and despair,
establishing a complicated legacy. Yet
not every survivor finds the words or
strength necessary to tell his or her
story publicly.
Likewise, many children of survivors

Preserving
History

E

xclusively for the 20th-anni-
versary of Schindler's List and
the establishment of the USC
Shoah Foundation, Steven Spielberg
and Universal Pictures have opened
their archives to create Testimony: The
Legacy of Schindler's List and the USC
Shoah Foundation (Newmarket Press
for It Books/HarperCollins; $50), a large-
format, illustrated book combining the
behind-the-scenes story of the Oscar-
winning film and the foundation's work.
Schindler's List, released in 1993, won
seven Oscars, including Best Picture and
Best Director, and far exceeded all expec-
tations for a black-and-white film about
the Holocaust; it is ranked ninth in the
American Film Institute's 100 Greatest
American Movies.
But Director Spielberg realized he
wanted to do more to share the stories of
those who survived the Holocaust. Just
days after winning the Academy Award
for the film, Spielberg established the
Shoah Foundation.
"I made Schindler's List with my mind
and my heart:' he said, "and it led me
to find my faith and my soul. Still ...

64

April 24 • 2014

JN

struggle throughout their lives to under-
stand their parents' scars.
"Most grew up with the Holocaust
as a silent, dark mystery," Dr. Jerry
Jennings, a clinical psychologist who has
published three Holocaust memoirs on
behalf of survivors, tells JNS.org .
"They were denied the truth of what
deeply shaped their parents' and their
own upbringing, and they have strong
emotions about touching a subject that
was explicitly or implicitly forbidden by
the parent."
This communication gap may inhibit
future generations from embracing and
understanding Holocaust history. With
so little time left, Jennings encourages
younger generations to record their
aging relatives' stories.
"There is untold value in getting the
names and hometowns of family and
friends in the 'Old World' — uncles,

cousins, grandparents, etc: he explains.
Every detail counts.
The methodology that Jennings uti-
lizes to transcribe his subjects' memoirs
underscores the importance of meticu-
lously collecting all available evidence.
Jennings interviewed survivors Stella
Yollin, Sol and Goldie Finkelstein, and
Ida Hoffmann for his trilogy of books,
titled Stella's Secret, I Choose Life and
Darkness Hides the Flowers.
He notes, "The goal of research is not
to confirm or verify [survivor] stories,
but rather to put their individual stories
in the broader historical context."
The task of correlating oral testimony
with existing records requires patient
listening and careful attention to spe-
cific names, dates and places.
Inconsistencies in a survivor's story
are not roadblocks. On the contrary,

Memoirs on page 65

Ida Hoffmann, left, subject of the
Holocaust memoir Darkness Hides the
Flowers, with her sisters Eugenie and
Rosa

Book presents behind-the-scenes story of Schindler's List
and creation of the Shoah Foundation.

the film was to be a prelude to the most
Part I of Testimony includes produc-
important part of my life: [founding] the
tion stills, interviews and other artifacts
Survivors of the Shoah Visual History
that brought the making of Schindler's
Foundation."
List to life, and delves into why Spielberg
In 2006, the Shoah Foundation joined
waited 10 years to make the film. There
the University of Southern California and
are excerpts from the script and Thomas
was renamed the USC
Keneally novel, and
Shoah Foundation-The
words of the cast and
Institute for Visual History
crew, including Liam
and Education, expanding
Neeson, Ben Kingsley
its mission and educa-
and Spielberg.
tional initiatives.
In addition to
Today, the USC Shoah
the details of pre-
production planning,
Foundation's extensive
archive of more than
the book examines
50,000 video-recorded
the challenges of the
testimonies includes those
location shoot and
not only from Holocaust
explores Spielberg's
The LEGACY of SCHINDLER'S LIST and
survivors, but survivors of
personal interac-
THE USC SHOAH FOUNDATION
other genocides, including
tion with survivors
that inspired him to
the Armenian Genocide,
Cambodian Genocide,
preserve their testi-
Rwandan Tutsi Genocide
monies.
and the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, as well.
Throughout the book, readers will find
more than 20 survivor testimonies similar
It has become a major reference
resource for academics, libraries, muse-
to the ones that inspired the story behind
ums, schools, churches, synagogues,
Schindler's List.
In Part II, Testimony details Spielberg's
families and students.

INTRODUCTION

BY STEVEN SPIELBERG

TESTIMONY

A 2, AnrvivERSAnr COlestemOncrION

urgent mission to preserve the Holocaust
testimonies and share this important part
of world history.
Knowing that time was against them,
the team Spielberg assembled worked on
a five-year plan to record the more than
50,000 testimonies — in 58 countries and
34 languages.
Readers will get an inside look at how
what started as a mission to preserve this
particular moment in history has grown
to become the largest resource of its kind
in the world.
A major part of the foundation's grow-
ing success is the development of a
pioneering interviewing methodology;
state-of-the art technologies for index-
ing, cataloging and preservation; and a
groundbreaking means to share the testi-
monies with the world.
This beautifully illustrated book depicts
the amazing story of how those who have
survived some of the most tragic events in
world history are helping to teach future
generations how to build personal con-
nections to the past, expand their world-
views and develop the conviction to act as
considerate global citizens. ❑

