LaCapra, Dominick
“Holocaust Testimonies: Attending to the Victim’s Voice.” In Catastrophe and Meaning: The Holocaust and the Twentieth Century, edited by Moishe Postone and Eric Santner. Chicago University Press.
Below is a selected and annotated bibliography of scholarly works concerning oral history, with a particular focus on survivor testimony in the context of genocide and mass violence. While in no way comprehensive, this list’s purpose is to direct those interested in research with testimonies to some of the major works on this topic in the fields of history, oral history, and genocide and memory studies. The bibliography is compiled by the staff at the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research.
Kushner, Tony
“Holocaust Testimony, Ethics, and the Problem of Representation.” Poetics Today 27(2): 275-295.
The article traces the journey of Holocaust testimonies from a marginalized to a recognized subject of historical analysis.
Klein, Amelia
“Memory-Work: Video Testimony, Holocaust Remembrance and the Third Generation.” Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture and History 13(2-3): 129-150.
An article that focuses on the influence of video testimonies on the “memory work” of Holocaust survivors’ grandchildren.
Kidron, Carol A.
“Toward an Ethnography of Silence: The Lived Presence of the Past in the Everyday Life of Holocaust Trauma Survivors and Their Descendants in Israel.” Current Anthropology 50(1): 5-27.
Through the examination of ethnographic accounts of Holocaust descendants, this article discusses an ethnography of silence, or silent memory, of Holocaust survivors and the “lived memory” of the traumatic past in the everyday familial life.
Hirsch, Marianne, and Leo Spitzer
“The Witness in the Archive: Holocaust Studies/Memory Studies.” Memory Studies 2(2): 151-170.
Looking at the contradictions in the Holocaust witness testimony, the article discusses the challenges that the Holocaust has brought to the field of memory studies, and the reverse.
Hilman, Susanne
‘“Not Living, But Going’: Unheroic Survival Trauma Performance and Video Testimony.” Holocaust Studies 21(4): 215-235.
Analysis of video testimonies of the Holocaust survivors as historical texts, with an emphasis on challenging the trope of “heroic survival.”
High, Steven
Beyond Testimony and Trauma: Oral history in the Aftermath of Mass Violence. UBC Press.
A collection of case studies focusing on oral history in the aftermath of mass violence, including the discussion of collaborative approaches and the political and historical context in which survivors recount their experiences.
Hamilton, Paula, and Linda Shopes
Oral History and Public Memories. Temple University Press.
A collection of case studies that explore the relationship between oral history and memory studies; cultural meaning of oral history narratives; the influence of oral history on the creation of cultural heritage; personal testimony vs. public history; memory and mourning; and oral history and activism.
Greenspan, Henry
On Listening to Holocaust Survivors: Recounting and Life History. Praeger Publishers.
The book offers a psychological perspective about the variety of means the Holocaust survivors employ to recount their traumatic experiences. Includes a discussion of the methodology of doing interviews with Holocaust survivors.
Grele, Ronald J., ed.
Envelopes of Sound: The Art of Oral History. New York: Praeger.
A canonical work in the field of oral history, this book focuses on oral history theory, with an emphasis on the application of structuralist theory to oral narratives and the idea of an oral history interview being an interactive process.