us-005586
sources: national reports
history: In 1946, [Dr. David P. Boder](https://voices.library.iit.edu/index.php/david_boder), a psychology professor from Chicago's Illinois Institute of Technology, traveled to Europe to record the stories of Holocaust survivors in their own words. Over a period of three months, he visited refugee camps in France, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany, carrying a wire recorder and 200 spools of steel wire, upon which he was able to record over 90 hours of first-hand testimony. These recordings represent the earliest known oral histories of the Holocaust, which are available through this online archive. Despite the groundbreaking nature of his work, Dr. David P. Boder was largely unsuccessful in his efforts to publish the displaced persons (DPs) interviews. Before his death in 1961 though, he did submit a set of seventy interview transcripts to a select number of libraries and historical foundations across the U.S. (including Illinois Institute of Technology), though few volumes remain today. IIT's Paul V. Galvin Library began the process of digitizing the text and audio of the interviews in 1998. In 1999, copies of the wire recordings were located at the Library of Congress (the location of the originals is unknown). These were converted to Digital Audio Tape (DAT) by the Library of Congress at IIT's request. However, the quality of much of the audio material proved to be disappointing—excessive amounts of static, distortion, hum, and other surface noise make the voices difficult to understand, and in some cases, completely unintelligible. Due to budget constraints, the library was unable to afford the costly audio restoration work necessary to improve the quality of the recordings, and was only able to convert sixteen of the interviews into a streaming format suitable for presentation over the Web. The first Voices of the Holocaust website was launched in 2000. It featured English transcripts for the seventy interviews transcribed by Boder, and streaming audio for a small portio…
general description: [Explore the Archive](https://voices.library.iit.edu/solr-search/content?search_api_fulltext=) This collection includes transcriptions and audio of one hundred eighteen interviews involving one hundred twenty-one interviewees. While Boder's main focus during his time in Europe was interviewing displaced persons, he also recorded other events, including religious services, speeches, and songs sung by choirs or persons in the DP camps. This material is not currently available in this collection, however many of the songs Boder recorded are available elsewhere, including World ORT's Music During the Holocaust and USHMM's Music of the Holocaust exhibits. Boder's wire recordings also contain a number of"aborte" interviews, lasting only a minute or two, which may have been intentionally terminated or accidentally recorded over. These are also not included here, but may be added at some point in the future.
name: Voices of the Holocaust - Illinois Institute of Technology
type: Institution
buildings: The John Crerar Library moved to the University of Chicago in 1985, prompting the renaming and renovation of the building. Previously, the independent Crerar Library had housed IIT's James S. Kemper Library.
finding aids: [Project Notes](https://voices.library.iit.edu/project_notes)
records management and collecting policies: Dr. Boder interviewed displaced persons in France, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany. The interviewees represented all economic levels, many religions, and various nationalities and language groups from across Europe. His usual approach was to point out that most Americans had a limited knowledge of Nazi atrocities, and that by telling his or her story, the interviewee could contribute to both the education of the American public and the historical record. Boder would often begin by asking the person's name, age, and where they were when the war started, then allowed them to speak at will, without the constraints of preplanned interview questions. Boder returned to Chicago and with the help of grants from the National Institute of Mental Health transcribed and translated seventy of the interviews into English from 1947-1957. In 1949, edited versions of eight of the interviews were published in I Did Not Interview the Dead (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1949). Boder eventually published all seventy of his translations in a set of self-published volumes, under the title Topical Autobiographies of Displaced People Recorded Verbatim in Displaced Persons Camps, With a Psychological and Anthropological Analysis. Boder sent copies of these volumes to dozens of libraries before his death in 1961, though fewer than thirty sets survive today.
sources: [IIT](https://voices.library.iit.edu/) website consulted on 28/12/2022
agent has or had location: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/institutions/us-005586/locations/1
authorized by: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/institutions/us-005586/mandates/1