Contacting the last living suvivors of Holocaust, Slave work etc.
Article about: Hello forum mates! I have got a somewhat "strange" question... Many of you may know that WW2 veterans (especially highly decorated ones) regularly receive "fan mail". Per
Contacting the last living suvivors of Holocaust, Slave work etc.
Hello forum mates!
I have got a somewhat "strange" question...
Many of you may know that WW2 veterans (especially highly decorated ones) regularly receive "fan mail".
Personally I am rather interested in the stories of people who were (that is at least my impression) often overlooked during that "hype", i.e. holcaust survivors, ex-slave workers etc.
Of course I know that this is quite a delicate issue but your help will be greatly appreciated.
On the one hand the number of people who experienced those horros are certainly diminishing but on the other hand I recently read that there are for example still about 180.000 holocaust survivors in Israel only.
I would like to write to some of them (yeah, letters of course ) to get to know more about their personal experience. Now that the last contemporary witnesses are slowly dying it is quite important to keep the memory of those terrible times alive.
So what I am asking for are addresses of holocaust surviviors, ex-slave workers etc. (please send them to me as private messages). I am only interested in addresses of people of whom you know that they will not feel discommoded!
I suggest contacting the Simon Wiesenthal Center with your project, or perhaps your nearest Synagogue...as we primarily deal in War Relics and Military History...Contacting Holocaust survivors is beyond our scope, friend...
cheers, Glenn
To echo what Glenn has said, I feel that it would be inappropriate to write to Holocaust survivors in the speculative manner that seems to be suggested here. Making contact with individuals in pursuit of personal histories would only be justified as part of a properly constituted research project, with the various ethical safeguards and oversight which that implies. I would add that it isn't really correct to say that Holocaust survivors as a group are 'overlooked', when there is already a huge and ever growing literature on that subject - for example, a search on the phrase "holocaust survivor oral histories" produces over 88,000 hits. Assuming that he hasn't already done so, I would urge CfG to first read some of the classic works on the topic, such as the books of Raul Hilberg and the memoirs and essays of Primo Levi (esp. If this is a Man/The Truce and The Drowned and the Saved.
To echo what Glenn has said, I feel that it would be inappropriate to write to Holocaust survivors in the speculative manner that seems to be suggested here. Making contact with individuals in pursuit of personal histories would only be justified as part of a properly constituted research project, with the various ethical safeguards and oversight which that implies. I would add that it isn't really correct to say that Holocaust survivors as a group are 'overlooked', when there is already a huge and ever growing literature on that subject - for example, a search on the phrase "holocaust survivor oral histories" produces over 88,000 hits. Assuming that he hasn't already done so, I would urge CfG to first read some of the classic works on the topic, such as the books of Raul Hilberg and the memoirs and essays of Primo Levi (esp. If this is a Man/The Truce and The Drowned and the Saved.
Regards, Philip
I absolutely agree with Glenn and Phillip on this one. I am sure that most survivors of this horrific period of their lives would not appreciate an intrusion of this sort. I will however add that FIVE CHIMNEYS by Olga Lengyel is an account of the horrors of Auschwitz and Birkenau that will also leave you numb, as the above mentioned books do. Leon.
It must also be remembered that the rise in anti semitism in recent times would make it very unlikely that anyone will be interested in having contact with someone who is just interested in the the "lost" voices of the period.
Though I might have to close this again for getting too political, the rise in anti semitism is such that most of the middle eastern states no longer have Jewish populations any more (do a search for stats on this) and even in somewhere such as France they are leaving in their droves to escape the hate they face on a daily basis.
To echo what Glenn has said, I feel that it would be inappropriate to write to Holocaust survivors in the speculative manner that seems to be suggested here. Making contact with individuals in pursuit of personal histories would only be justified as part of a properly constituted research project, with the various ethical safeguards and oversight which that implies. I would add that it isn't really correct to say that Holocaust survivors as a group are 'overlooked', when there is already a huge and ever growing literature on that subject - for example, a search on the phrase "holocaust survivor oral histories" produces over 88,000 hits. Assuming that he hasn't already done so, I would urge CfG to first read some of the classic works on the topic, such as the books of Raul Hilberg and the memoirs and essays of Primo Levi (esp. If this is a Man/The Truce and The Drowned and the Saved.
Regards, Philip
Hello Philip!
Please take a closer look at WHAT I wrote:
I did not write that holocaust survivors were an overlooked group. I wrote that they were IN MY OPINION overlooked (by WW2 "enthusiasts" in forums like this one) during the trend I mentioned , i.e. writing to them.
People who do write to contemporary witnesses tend to find it more "pleasing" to write to Waffen-SS Knight's Cross Holders rather than the Third Reich's victims.
And please do not limit my words to holocaust survivors only as I wrote "holocaust survivors, ex-slave workers etc." to include other groups of victims too (e.g. Sinti and Romanies).
Believe me, I already read diverse holocaust survivors' memoirs...
The request posted in this thread is there to see, but I do not think that any further discussion on the issue is needed. If anyone wishes to help the thread starter, they know how to do so.
Contacting the last living suvivors of Holocaust, Slave work etc.
) to get to know more about their personal experience. Now that the last contemporary witnesses are slowly dying it is quite important to keep the memory of those terrible times alive.
its just an opinion.
by DrPMC
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