Tuesday November 19th, 1:30pm-1:55pm @ Rangimarie 2 - Breakout Room

Keeping their voices alive: Survivor testimony projects at the Sydney Jewish Museum

As a museum created by Holocaust survivors to share their stories, oral history is at our core. Survivors were always on the Museum floor speaking to visitors and are an integral part of our education programs. Visitors regularly comment on how powerful and transformative these encounters are. So what do we do when there are inevitably no more Survivors? For many years the Sydney Jewish Museum has been grappling with this question. While nothing will ever replace the experience of meeting a Holocaust Survivor, we know testimony will still have a central role in Holocaust education and this has led us on a search for the best practice in delivering eye-witness accounts. Some schemes fit within our budget and some are pipe-dreams we can’t let go of. Time is of the essence as living witnesses grow fewer and fewer. In this presentation I will outline how the Sydney Jewish Museum has been thinking through the challenge of preserving oral histories, the presentation options and how we have navigated the different proposals and personalities to find the right solution.

Shannon Biederman, Sydney Jewish Museum, Curator Collections