Yale Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

The Yale Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies is one of the first collections of its kind to be created and it is well known to the community of Holocaust researchers. The Archive has its roots in New Haven, Connecticut but its collection now spans the Americas, Europe, and Israel. For more than three decades its mission has stayed the same: to record and project the stories of those who were there. In 1979, a grassroots organization, the Holocaust Survivors Film Project, began videotaping Holocaust survivors and witnesses in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1981, the original collection of testimonies was donated to Yale University. The Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, part of the Yale University Library, opened its doors to the public the following year. The Fortunoff Archive consists of testimonies of willing individuals with first-hand experience of the Nazi persecutions, including those who were in hiding, survivors, bystanders, resistants, and liberators. Testimonies were recorded in whatever language the witness preferred, and range in length from 30 minutes to over 40 hours (recorded over several sessions).