The Quest to Remember
Journalist Jamie Stiehm has written an interesting column entitled Racing Against Time to Remember, Reclaim Pieces of the Holocaust. Her piece was also syndicated by Creators.com in The National Memo.
She so correctly encapsulates the urgency of the situation:
A desperate race against time is now, here in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and across the Jewish community. A race to save firsthand experiences, shards of the Shoah, in voice and memory.
The last generation of Holocaust survivors are in their 80s and 90s, near the end. And what their eyes have seen when they were young is too important to lose to time. The Museum seeks to preserve their eyewitness remembrances and artifacts (such as uniforms, passports, letters) for its international archives.
And she goes on to quote me: … a tape recorder can set the tone for a serious conversational focus on the past. Expect to hear things tumble out you’ve never heard before. It’s amazing what memories — and perhaps documents — you can find, Gold says.
In the process of melting ice, you will hear “glorious snippets,” Gold declares. “Families should do that (interview.) They will regret it bitterly if they don’t. Then you’ve missed your chance.”