East Renfrewshire Testimonies - Targu Mures - Anne Frank

Testimonies
The primary goal of these pages is to use oral history to enable users to enhance their understanding of selected issues from the Holocaust relating to survivors' testimonies.

Oral history is defined as:

'The interviewing of eyewitness participants in the events of the past for purposes of historical reconstruction' is a highly appropriate methodology for Holocaust studies.

Oral history enables us to:

- Break down the subject of the Holocaust into a series of limited, identifiable, human experiences
- Encourage involvement and empathy with individual survivors of the Holocaust
- Nurture communication, technological and historical skills
- Stimulate the capacity to observe and evaluate the actions of others
- Realise the importance of being sensitive to the pain of others
- Explore recent historical events in an exciting and accessible way

All the testimonies here reflect the viewpoint of victims of the Holocaust. There are no testimonies included from the perpetrators or the bystanders.

In order to prevent users from defining Jews as victims of the Holocaust, they should recognise the validity and strength of Jewish faith and culture. They should realise that millions of Jewish individuals were murdered during the Holocaust, thus destroying a way of life that had been developed over centuries. In spite of this, Jewish faith and culture managed to survive and continues today.

A CD ROM of the testimonies is also available from East Renfrewshire Libraries.

We would like to hear your stories too. If you are interested in adding to these pages please use the contact link at the bottom of the page.

* The value of oral history for Holocaust research and remembrance", by Rob Perks, paper presented at the Amsterdam Conference on Remembrance, 2-5 May 2001, organised by the Task Force for International Co-operation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research.