The Holocaust Oral History Archive
of Gratz College
The Holocaust Oral History Archive of Gratz College seeks to record, preserve, and make available to advanced students and researchers the testimonies of those who experienced the Nazi era (1933-1945) in ghettos, camps, labor brigades, resistance forces, national armies, in hiding, and in rescue operations. Established in 1979 and maintained by a dedicated volunteer staff, the Gratz collection is one of the earliest Holocaust oral history projects in the U.S. and includes over 850 audiotaped interviews, most of which are transcribed, catalogued and available through interlibrary loan. The Archive is a Contributing Organization to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Yad Vashem.
The Archive has hosted presentations to teachers and advanced student groups studying oral history and continues to develop anthologies of testimony excerpts appropriate for teaching and programming. Publications include The Persistence of Youth: Oral Testimonies of the Holocaust (ed. Josey G. Fisher), 15 accounts of young people's experience from the Gratz collection and Jewish Life in Pre-War Germany, testimony excerpts of the early Nazi era and Kristallnacht.