Special exhibit at the Beinecke showcases Holocaust survivors’ testimonies
“In the First Person” is on display now at the Beinecke Library and displays the Fortunoff Video Archive, a series of Holocaust survivor testimonies.
Alex Geldzahler, Contributing Photographer
The Fortunoff Video Archive, a 45-year-old collection of Holocaust survivor testimonies collected at Yale, is currently on display at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
The special exhibit, titled “In the First Person: The Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies,” aims to showcase the powerful first-person testimonies collected over four decades ago to mark the anniversary of the Archive’s formation.
The exhibit presents pieces from the extensive digital and physical collection, sharing intimate details about many survivors’ experiences during the Holocaust and World War II. Additionally, it takes a comprehensive look at the tide of antisemitism and Nazism in Europe during the first half of the 20th century through the lens of those who witnessed it.
“It is an exemplary exhibit in the way it provides both a history of the archive and makes the archive’s contents accessible,” David Sorkin, the Lucy G. Moses professor of modern Jewish history at Yale, told the News.
Beginning in 1979, the Holocaust Survivors Film Project embarked on an ambitious undertaking: documenting the experiences and memories of Holocaust survivors in the New Haven community, and later, across the nation. Two years later, 183 testimonies, comprising the project’s entirety at the time, were donated to the Yale University Library.
Throughout the 1980s, as the project developed, volunteers recorded further survivor testimonies in New Haven. Currently, the Fortunoff Video Archive contains over 4,400 video testimonies or 12,000 hours of filmed interviews taken all over the world.
Now, 45 years later, “In the First Person” invites visitors to take their time among the collection, which is laid out around the upper level of the Beinecke, and gain a deeper understanding of just a sample of what was recorded decades ago. The exhibit features 19 video interviews, exploring the lives of Holocaust survivors in an effort to paint a wider portrait of the event using a collage of individual stories.
For example, Imre Kertész, who was only 14 when Nazi forces occupied his city of Budapest, recalls in his recorded testimony that “The concept of man was ended…shattered.”
After being deported to Auschwitz and then Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Kertész survived and wrote about his experiences in his 1975 novel “Sorstalanság” — meaning “fatelessness” in English — before being interviewed for the Video Archive in 1997.
Kertész, whose excerpt is on display on a video monitor with headphones, echoes the sentiment of the exhibit itself, which offers a space to memorialize the millions of Jewish and non-Jewish victims while creating an atmosphere dedicated to preventing the rise of hate and antisemitism again.
The theme of memorialization and education is strong throughout the exhibit, and it leaves a lasting impression on those who have already visited.
Natalia Armas Perez ’28 was moved by the archival display, saying that the collection “highlights smaller stories and gives a platform to drama and moments of growth. It shows how far we’ve come but also what is left to do.”
Paying special attention to antisemitism and the experiences of the interviewees before, during and after the Holocaust, “In the First Person” paints a comprehensive image of not only the rise and fall of Nazis in Europe but the individual lives that were shaken and ended during the Holocaust. Alongside pieces and videos from survivors themselves, the exhibit also displays objects, including newspaper advertisements and opening programs.
The exhibit has been on display since the 45th anniversary of the archive’s formation on July 25.
“The Fortunoff Video Archive is a crucially important contribution to the preservation of Holocaust memory and education,” said Uri Cohen, executive director of the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale. “Holocaust education is more important today than at any other time in history.”
Through a collection of historical artifacts and sources ranging in media type, the exhibit efficiently and diligently paints a heartbreaking picture of the Holocaust and all the individuals whose lives were irrevocably changed by hate.
“In the First Person” will remain at the Beinecke until Jan. 28, 2025.