Guest post by Oskar Schindler Archive archivist Tiana Taliep.

The Leatherby Libraries and Sala and Aron Samueli Holocaust Memorial Library are pleased to announce that it has recently become an access site for the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University. The Archive, begun in 1979 as the Holocaust Survivors Film Project, was donated to Yale University in 1981. Additional interviews were added over the years to create the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies comprised of some 4,300 testimonies. Now digitized, testimonies range in length from 30 minutes to over 40 hours.

Among the thousands, there are 27 testimonies from survivors that worked in Oskar Schindler’s factories, including Moshe Bejski, Leopold Page, and Sol Urbach. These testimonies are a valuable resource to accompany the Oskar Schindler Archive, as the collection contains many letters from these survivors. The ability to see the survivor’s testimonies provides a human face to history and allows viewers to learn from an individual perspective.

Black and white photograph of two men in suits, one seated and one standing behind him with a hand on the seated man's shoulder

Leopold Page (left, standing) with Oskar Schindler (right, seated)

The testimonies are available to Chapman University users through a streaming access system (Aviary), summarized notes and transcripts are included with the testimonies when available. Researchers are also able to navigate from one video to another. The resource is browsable through the Leatherby Libraries’ A-Z databases list, or directly at this link: https://chapman.libguides.com/fortunoff_archive

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Archivist of the Oskar Schindler Archive, Tiana Taliep, at taliep@chapman.edu.