ENGL 101: Kavaloski: Survivor Accounts

Survivor Accounts and Primary Sources

Survivor accounts are primary sources. Primary sources are firsthand accounts of historical events and include interviews, photographs, video footage, journals and diaries, archival materials, etc. In contrast, secondary sources like encyclopedia articles or historical research articles analyze and interpret the past. 

When you're looking for survivor accounts, you'll need to use search techniques specific to primary sources. The box below details some of these techniques. 

There are many places you can find firsthand accounts from Holocaust survivors. Here's a quick guide: 

• Search using ROOsearch: The Library of Congress has created a subject heading specifically related to Holocaust survivor accounts: "Personal Narratives of Holocaust Survivors." Another subject heading, "Children of Holocaust survivors," will specifically return information about second-generation survivors. This makes your search very quick and easy on ROOsearch - simply type the subject heading in as your search term, and it will return all narratives the library has available. 

If you'd like to continue your search and discover more Holocaust survivor accounts, there are many resources online with interviews and recordings. Here's a brief list. Remember, you can always ask a librarian if you'd like guidance finding even more sources. 

• University of Michigan: Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive: The University of Michigan's Voice/Vision Archive hosts a number of interview transcripts that you can read online. Some even include links to videos. 
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Holocaust Encyclopedia: The USHMM hosts many oral histories from Holocaust survivors. These oral histories are presented as video recordings with accompanying transcripts. 
• The 1939 Society: This organization, dedicated to bringing together Holocaust survivors and their surviving families, hosts oral histories as well as written stories.