The British Library has launched an online collection of Holocaust survivor testimonies to mark Holocaust Memorial Day this month.
The ‘Jewish Survivors of the Holocaust’ project, which was funded by the Pears Foundation and the Brian and Jill Moss Charitable Trust, gives readers access to 289 audio interviews with survivors living in Britain.
This comes in addition to two other testimony projects which are available online: Jewish Care’s Holocaust Survivors’ Centre Testimony recording project, which ran 1993-1998 and the Living Memory of the Jewish Community, a project run by National Life Stories at the British Library 1987-2000.
Dr Rob Perks, lead curator of oral history at the British Library, said: “This project has helped to expand access to the collection, making testimonies accessible online and searchable, and ensure they can be accessed by future generations, benefiting schools, graduate and postgraduate study, historians and researchers, family, local and amateur history enthusiasts and the general public.”
Aviva Trup, manager of Jewish Care’s Holocaust Survivors’ Centre in Hendon, north-west London, added: “For many of our members leaving their legacy to ensure people never forget the Holocaust is extremely important to them. We support survivors who want talk about their experiences to tell their stories. We are delighted, that through our partnership with the British Library, that these important survivor testimonies are now going to be widely available to all”.
