The Middle of an Interview: Information learned through Multiple Interviews in Oral History

• In Event: OHA Poster Session and Project Bazaar

Abstract

An analysis of multiple oral history interviews from Holocaust survivors that have been conducted from 1946 to the early 2000s. From the first interview to the last, can information be gathered that was not there in the initial interview? Can this process help shape the way interviews are conducted in the future when dealing with a traumatic event?
In oral history there are standard guidelines on the types of questions that are asked, audio or video collection, location, and the desired outcome of the interviews. The one question that has not come up in publications is when an interview should take place or the number of interviews that should be conducted about one specific event with the interviewee. Some of the questions that will be answered in this presentation are as follows:
• What happens to a Holocaust survivor’s experience over time? Are new details brought to light are older details left out?
• Can technology over time change an interviewee’s response to a question?
• Should an interview be conducted soon after an event (i.e. Holocaust) and then a second conducted later? Will this technique give us all the information about a certain event? Is it worth the time to conduct several interviews over the course of the interviewee’s life?
I am conducting a comparison between Dr. David P. Boder’s original interviews of Holocaust survivors conducted in 1946 to interviews by the same survivors conducted in early 2000s by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The goal of this research is not to change the way that oral history has been conducted, but possibly to add another layer to it. Oral history is all about finding the details and maybe with the study, future generations can collect information in a different way that helps preserve events like the Holocaust and the survivors.

Author

• Heather L Roehl, Arizona State University