The Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

The Fortunoff Video Archive comprises more than 12,000 hours of video interviews with Holocaust survivors. The archive emerged from the collection of 183 interviews created in 1979 as part of the Holocaust Survivors Film Project and today comprises more than 4,400 interviews in 22 languages that were either recorded at Yale University or in the framework of partner projects. The individual recordings can be browsed via the online catalogue.

For a long time, these recordings could only be viewed on site at Yale University. In the framework of an agreement concluded between Yale University and the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) in January 2017 the interviews can now – following registration and ordering of materials – also be viewed at the VWI. A tutorial explains the procedure and includes tips for expanded searches.

Over the last three years, the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies and the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute (VWI) have cooperated on a number of joint projects, including events, conferences and a shared fellowship program based in Vienna. Now, the two institutions are launching a new initiative to open a temporary "European Outreach Office" for the Fortunoff Archive in Vienna. Many of the Archive's researchers are based at universities, museums and cultural institutions in Europe. VWI has kindly offered to host the Fortunoff Video Archive’s European Outreach Office at its Vienna location at no cost during the two-year program. The new office will help the Fortunoff Archive deepen its cooperation with the European research community, allow it to participate actively in VWI's vibrant programming, and embark on its own ambitious outreach effort in Europe.

The European Outreach Office will not reduce the Fortunoff Archive's commitment to Yale, but expand it, while embracing the collection's international origins, as it was born as a collaborative worldwide effort. It will serve our researchers in the places where important Holocaust research is being conducted – primarily in Europe, where scholars are grappling with each country's role during the Holocaust.

Using the Archive / Contact Information

Effective from March 2022