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Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

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Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

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The Fortunoff Video Archive has recorded testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust for more than four decades.

It began in New Haven (1979) and calls Yale University Library home, but its collection spans the Americas, Europe, and Israel.

10/29/2026

Are you teaching oral history? Explore The Art of Listening, a new digital teaching set from the Fortunoff Archive. It empowers students to listen to Holocaust testimonies and record oral histories in their communities. https://hubs.li/Q04y3RSd0
[Sponsored by Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies]

10/28/2026

The Yale Fortunoff Video Archive, in conjunction with the Yale University Program in Jewish Studies, invites applications for the Geoffrey H. Hartman Postdoctoral Fellowship in Holocaust Studies, with an anticipated start date of July 1, 2027. The fellowship is renewable for a second year, contingent upon a successful review. (Deadline: January 15, 2027)

Full details: https://fortunoff.library.yale.edu/2026/10/26/cfa-geoffrey-h-hartman-postdoctoral-fellow/

10/21/2026

“One of the important insights I gained from the course concerned the heterogeneity of testimony. Some testimonies are eloquent and literary, while others are not. Testimony cannot, therefore, be understood through a single model of narration or evaluated solely in terms of its eloquence. This heterogeneity raises important questions about the linguistic aporias of testimony, including choice, liberation, time as healer, speaking versus silence, and the very possibility of testimony.”

Those interested in our intensive summer course “Holocaust Testimonies and Their Afterlives” should read the insightful recap by Dr. Mahitosh Mandal.

https://www.mahitoshmandal.com/post/holocaust-testimonies-and-their-afterlives-a-report-on-the-ceu-summer-course-2024

The course, conducted at CEU Summer University’s campus in Budapest, features a series of workshops, seminars, public lectures, and film screenings to investigate the genealogy of the era of the witness, focusing on the emergence of Holocaust testimony as the model for eyewitness documentation of 20th and 21st century atrocities.

10/20/2026

The report from “Ethical and Methodological Approaches to Holocaust Testimonies: Bridging Oral History and Digital Humanities,” a workshop held this summer at the Wiener Wiesenthal Institut für Holocaust Studien - VWI, has been published.

The workshop brought together scholars and archivists from different countries and disciplines to explore the future of Holocaust testimony research, preservation, and access. Discussions addressed the ethical and methodological challenges, as well as the opportunities, involved in engaging with Holocaust testimonies in the twenty-first century.

The workshop was co-organized by Malin Thor Tureby, Malmö University (Malmö University) and Noah Shenker, Colgate University (Colgate University) with the support of Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (Wiener Wiesenthal Institut für Holocaust Studien - VWI), the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond), and the Fortunoff Video Archive.

Read the workshop report in S:I.M.O.N. — Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation, below.

https://simon.vwi.ac.at/index.php/simon/article/view/350/286

10/19/2026

Join Fortunoff Video Archive Artist-in-Residence Grzegorz Kwiatkowski at The University of Chicago tomorrow at 11am for “Working with Testimony: Archives, Poetry, Memory, and Reparative Description.”

Kwiatkowski will discuss his work here at the archive, the testimonies in poetry, and the ethical questions surrounding archives, memory and representation.

Register: https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/about/news/working-with-testimony

Location: Regenstein Library, Room 122A (online attendance available)

10/15/2026

The Fortunoff Archive is pleased to announce Fortunoff Fellow Judith Lin as the new editor of the archive’s Critical Editions Series. Lin is a writer and researcher of the Sephardic Holocaust experience whose work combines analysis of oral testimonies with archival papers and collected writings in Ladino.

The Critical Editions Series contextualizes Fortunoff Video testimonies in their historical time and place. Each testimony in the series is selected by a visiting scholar, who produces an introductory essay and an annotated transcript providing additional insight and background information.

Find entries in the Critical Editions Series here: https://editions.fortunoff.library.yale.edu/

10/12/2026

From October 16–18, the Fortunoff Video Archive and the Hiroshima Peace Institute at Hiroshima City University will convene “Beyond the Era of the Witness 2: Passing the Lessons Forward in Hiroshima.”

This symposium will bring together educators and scholars to consider how the history and lessons of World War II can be carried forward for generations who will no longer have the opportunity to hear directly from those who experienced it.

View the full program now: https://fortunoff.library.yale.edu/2026/10/05/beyond-the-era-of-the-witness-2-passing-the-lessons-forward-in-hiroshima/

10/09/2026

Please join us on October 15 at YUNG Yidish WIEN for a presentation by Chad S.A. Gibbs, the Fortunoff Video Archive’s inaugural Dori Laub Fellow in 2020. He’ll be discussing his book “Survival at Treblinka: Geography, Gender, and Social Networks in Jewish Resistance.”

RSVP: https://www.yungyidishvienna.org/event-details/book-presentation-chad-s-a-gibbs-survival-at-treblinka-geography-gender-and-social-networks-in-jewish-resistance

On August 2, 1943, prisoners at the N**i extermination camp Treblinka, located in occupied Poland, launched an uprising against their captors, during which hundreds successfully escaped while guards killed as many in the process. In this groundbreaking work, Gibbs draws upon recently discovered sources and novel research methods to fundamentally reassess Jewish resistance at Treblinka, both before and during the revolt.

Using the testimonies of revolt survivors, prior escapees, those who passed through the camp, and a handful of bystander witnesses and former SS guards, Gibbs sheds new light on the events of August 2 as well as many prior acts of resistance.

10/02/2026

Join Fortunoff Video Archive Artist-in-Residence Grzegorz Kwiatkowski on October 19 at The University of Chicago for “Working with Testimony: Poetry, Memory, and Artistic Practice.”

Grzegorz has been working with Holocaust testimonies in his poetry for years, and this workshop will explore how Holocaust testimony can enter poetry, and how working with testimony can expand into a much wider artistic and public practice.

Learn more: https://events.uchicago.edu/event/274564-grzegorz-kwiatkowski-working-with-testimony

10/01/2026

On International Podcast Day, listen to the Fortunoff Video Archive’s Those Who Were There, the only podcast dedicated to sharing the history of the Holocaust through the first-hand testimonies of survivors and witnesses.

Listen to Leon Bass’ powerful story — in Leon's own words — and it will be forever etched in your memory. Leon faced racism at every turn, and he chose to stand up and tell his story. Subscribe wherever you get podcasts.

Leon Bass: https://bit.ly/twwtleon-bass

Address

New Haven, CT
06511

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Website

http://fortunoff.library.yale.edu/

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