How to Preserve a Holocaust Survivor's Testimony

To preserve a Holocaust survivor's testimony: let them set the pace and the boundaries, record the whole life rather than only the war years, use short sessions with someone present who can offer support, never press for detail they decline to give, and deposit a copy with a recognised archive as well as keeping one in the family. The testimony matters. The person giving it matters more.

Fewer than a handful of eyewitness years remain. Most survivors are now in their nineties, and families who have been meaning to record something are running out of time to do it.

Before you ask

Ask directly, privately, and without an audience. Say what it's for and who will hear it. Then give them time — days, not minutes — to decide, and accept a refusal without argument or a second attempt.

Some survivors have spoken publicly for decades. Others have never told their children, and a request can land as an intrusion into something deliberately sealed. Both responses are legitimate, and the second is not a problem to be solved.

Make three promises at the outset, and keep them exactly:

• They can stop at any moment, without explanation.
• They can decline any question.
• They can have anything removed afterwards.

The third promise is the one that most often makes people willing to begin.

Record the whole life, not only the war

This is the most important practical guidance, and the one families most often get wrong.

A survivor is not their persecution. Beginning with 1939 defines a person entirely by the worst thing done to them, and it also produces worse testimony — starting with childhood, parents, the street, the school, the food, the holidays gives the later account its weight. The reader needs to know what was destroyed before they can grasp the destruction.

Carry it forward, too: liberation, displaced persons camps, emigration, learning a language, building a family, the decades afterward. Survival is a much longer story than the war.

Conducting the session with care

• Keep sessions short — an hour or ninety minutes at most, across several days rather than one long sitting.
• Have someone they trust nearby, in the house if not in the room.
• Follow, don't lead. Open questions, and long silences left alone. The pause is often where the memory is arriving.
• Never press for graphic detail. If someone says "I won't talk about that", the correct response is to move on immediately and not return to it.
• Don't correct or fact-check in the moment. Challenging a date while someone is inside a memory ends the session, whatever you gain factually.
• Watch for distress and be willing to stop the recording and simply sit with them. Testimony is not worth harming the person who carries it.

Arrange in advance who they can talk to afterwards if the session opens something difficult. Many survivor organisations and community services can advise on appropriate support, and it is far better to have that in place before you begin.

Our wider guidance on difficult family memories and reluctant storytellers applies here too, with more caution.

Getting the recording right

Technical failure at this particular kind of interview is unforgivable, and it happens.

Record audio at minimum, in a quiet room, close to the speaker, in a lossless format. Test and listen back before starting properly. Use a second device as a simultaneous backup — phones fill up and batteries die. Our guide to recording a family member's voice covers the practicalities.

Note names, places and dates as you go, with spellings checked afterwards rather than during. Town names in particular have changed language and country more than once, and a misheard place name can make a testimony unsearchable for researchers later.

Depositing it with an archive

A family copy preserves it for your descendants. An archival copy preserves it for history, and makes it findable by researchers and by relatives you don't yet know exist.

Major institutions collecting survivor testimony include Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Wiener Holocaust Library in London. Requirements, formats and access conditions differ between them, so contact the institution before recording if you intend to deposit — some will conduct the interview themselves at no cost.

Depositing does not mean surrendering control. Most archives allow restrictions on access during the survivor's lifetime. That choice belongs to them, not to the family, and it should be recorded in writing.

Frequently asked questions

Is it too late to record a Holocaust survivor's testimony?

Not if the person is living and willing, though the window is closing quickly — most survivors are now in their nineties. Where memory has become fragile, short sessions built around photographs and documents often recover more than open questioning. Where the survivor has already died, testimony can still be assembled from what they told relatives, alongside surviving documents and archival records.

Should the interview focus on the war years?

No. Begin with childhood, family and community before the war, and continue through liberation, displacement, emigration and the life built afterwards. Framing someone entirely by their persecution both diminishes them and produces weaker testimony, because the reader cannot measure the loss without knowing what existed before it. The war years are one chapter of a long life, not the whole of it.

How do I avoid causing harm while recording?

Let the survivor set the pace and stop whenever they wish, never press for detail they decline, keep sessions short, and ensure someone they trust is available afterwards. Arrange access to appropriate support before you begin rather than improvising if distress arises. If a session becomes difficult, stopping the recording and simply sitting with the person is always the right call.

Where can a family deposit survivor testimony?

Yad Vashem, the USC Shoah Foundation, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Wiener Holocaust Library all collect testimony, and several will conduct the interview themselves without charge. Requirements and access conditions vary, so contact the institution before recording if you intend to deposit. Most permit the survivor to restrict public access during their lifetime, and that decision should be theirs and recorded in writing.

Keeping it in the family as well

An archive preserves the testimony. It does not usually give your family something to hold, read and pass on — and grandchildren are far more likely to read a book on the shelf than to search a database.

We work with families across Israel and the diaspora to record these life stories and produce them as written, printed books, in English or Hebrew, with photographs and documents restored and woven in. It is done at the survivor's pace, with their approval at every stage. If your family is considering it, book a free consultation — and please don't wait long.