Back in the 1990s, after directing Schindler’s List, Steven Spielberg kickstarted a global effort to film the testimony of as many Holocuast survivors as possible. Teams of interviewers were sent out to film survivors in the U.S., Israel, Canada and beyond.
Today, more than 50,000 videos sit in the archives of Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation at the University of Southern California. It has become the world’s largest collection of Holocaust and genocide survivor testimonies, all freely accessible to schools and researchers.
In 2018, years after the project wrapped up, the foundation’s organizers renewed their efforts to speak with people who didn’t participate the first time—not just survivors of the European concentration camps, but also Russians, North Africans, hidden children, children from displaced-person camps, war veterans and others. It’s called the Last Chance Testimony Collection.
It’s taken time to track down people to speak with, and organizers now have a waitlist of hundreds of people. The Canadian leg of the Last Chance Collection just launched yesterday, with officials from the California-based institution joining members of the the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre and Liberation75 for an online event.
We’re joined today by Marilyn Sinclair, herself the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, who’s running the Last Chance Collection in Canada.
What we talked about:
- Learn about the Last Chance Collection in Canada at liberation75.org/testimony
- Watch Pinchas Gutter’s testiomony for the USC Shoah Foundation on YouTube
- Browse the USC Shoah Foundation’s existing Canadian testimonials online at iwitness.usc.edu/register
- Register for “The Cattle Car: Stepping In and Out of Darkness at Trinity Bellwoods Park” at eventbrite.ca
- Read “Holocaust survivors’ testimonies get digitally preserved” at thecjn.ca
Credits
The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network; find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.
