The Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

It’s been a year of events for the Voice/Vision Archive! Normally, we aim to host at least one event per year and that is usually our Annual Holocaust Remembrance Day speaker featuring various scholars working in the field.

This year, however, the archive had the opportunity to host three wonderful events. Starting in October with the launch of Hank Greenspan’s new book REMNANTS and What Remains: Moments from a Life Among Holocaust Survivors. For the archive’s Annual Holocaust Remembrance day event, Professor Mark Celinscak presented "Allied Forces and the Liberation of Nazi Camps”, which was drawn from his book, Distance from the Belsen Heap: Allied Forces and the Liberation of a Nazi Concentration Camp. His talk was particularly insightful as it discussed and amplified the voices of allied liberators, many of whom, like the survivors themselves, remained silent after the war.

Finally, from June 16-18, the archive hosted the Fourth Biennial Meeting of the Consortium of Directors of Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Centers on our campus. Lance Wheeler, VP of Education and Engagement at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, gave the keynote presentation; “Truth Ain’t Neutral”. In it, Lance emphasized the importance of being truthful with our audiences and stakeholders, even if that truth is uncomfortable or invites pushback from politicians, donors and sometimes,  our own institutions. Lance’s talk, along with the other discussions at the meeting, was a much needed reminder of the importance of doing the work we do, honestly and without compromise. It’s not always easy, but it is always WORTH IT.

Lance Wheeler

In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, you are invited to a virtual talk by Professor Mark Celinscak.

Drawing from his book Distance from the Belsen Heap: Allied Forces and the Liberation of a Nazi Concentration Camp, Professor Celinscak will present, "Allied Forces and the Liberation of Nazi Camps” and discuss the experiences, reactions and narratives of liberators as they witnessed and tried to describe the aftermath of the camps.

Mark Celinscak is the Louis & Frances Blumkin Professor of Holocaust & Genocide Studies, and Executive Director of the Sam & Frances Fried Holocaust & Genocide Academy at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Please register here:

On October 5th, the Voice/Vision Archive hosted the launch of Hank Greenspan’s new book, Remnants and What Remains: Moments from a Life Among Holocaust Survivors (2025, WSU Press). This hybrid event brought together scholars from three countries—the USA, Sweden, and Great Britain—to discuss Hank’s vital contributions to interviewing and dialoguing with Holocaust survivors. Greenspan’s book, the culmination of nearly 50 years of conversations with survivors, has received high praise both within and beyond academia.

In addition to speaking about his work and reading passages from the book, Hank and the panelists highlighted the significance of the Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive and the work of its founder, Sidney Bolkosky. Notably, Dr. Christine Schmidt—a former student of Sid’s and graduate of UM-Dearborn’s Honors Program—spoke powerfully about the archive’s impact, both on her own journey as a student and her career in Holocaust Studies.

The event, co-sponsored by the University of Michigan’s Inclusive History Project, showcased the collaborative work of two Michigan-based Holocaust scholars who have played pivotal roles in the history and practice of conducting survivor oral history interviews. The discussions illuminated the importance of storytelling—not only what is said, but also what remains unspoken, and what the listener chooses to hear.

For me, the event marked my 25th year working at the archive: first as curator and historian (2000–2014), and now as director (2014–present). During these years, the field of Holocaust Studies has evolved significantly, as has our understanding and remembrance of the Holocaust. What once was a niche but growing area of study has now expanded throughout academia. Today, twenty-nine states mandate Holocaust education in their public schools, and hundreds of museums and memorials exist worldwide. Holocaust memory—once an “on again, off again” phenomenon in the US—has become a central theme in intellectual and public life, both here and abroad.

Yet, this prominence also brings risks. Distortion and misrepresentation—often for political gain, and now worsened by technology and AI—are ever-present threats. Words and images can be manipulated or taken out of context; AI platforms like ChatGPT may hallucinate sources or provide misinformation. Ironically, the abundance of educational resources can make Holocaust education both easier and more complex, as teachers navigate the same distortions mentioned above.

You are warmly invited to a book launch celebrating REMNANTS and What Remains: Moments from a Life Among Holocaust Survivors, the new book by Henry "Hank" Greenspan (Made in Michigan Writers series, Wayne State University Press, 2025). This event honors the memory of Professor Sidney Bolkosky, founder of the Voice/Vision Archive at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, to whom the book is dedicated.

Event Details:

Date and Time: Sunday, October 5, 2025, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. EST.

Location: Renick University Center, Kochoff Hall C, University of Michigan-Dearborn campus

(A virtual option is also available via Zoom.)

The event will be hosted by Dr. Jamie L. Wraight, Director of the Voice/Vision Archive. The program features brief reflections from three of Greenspan’s closest colleagues—renowned Holocaust scholars and educators:

Professor John K. Roth, Emeritus Professor, Claremont McKenna College

Professor Malin Thor Tureby, Professor of History, Malmö University, Sweden

Dr. Christine Schmidt, Deputy Director, The Wiener Library, London, and former student of Professor Bolkosky

Henry Greenspan will present a short performance and recitation from his new book. In keeping with the spirit of his and Professor Bolkosky’s relationships with survivors, there will be ample time for conversation and audience engagement.

For In-Person Attendees:

The event will take place in the Renick University Center, Kochoff Hall C on the UM-Dearborn campus. Light refreshments will be provided.

Directions to the UM-Dearborn campus and campus map:

https://umdearborn.edu/about-um-dearborn/visit-campus/maps-and-directions

To register for in-person attendance, contact Jamie Wraight at [email protected]

For online registration (required), click or paste in:

https://umich.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FiukzW7PSzOpiuhyrm6SGg

You are invited to a virtual talk by Dr. Christine Schmidt, Deputy Director and Head of Research at The Wiener Holocaust Library in London, on Thursday, January 23, 2025, at 12:30 PM EST. Dr. Schmidt, a UM-Dearborn alumna (CASL ’98), will present: “"We are All Witnesses": German Jewish Women and Archiving after the Holocaust.”

This lecture will delve into the unique history of The Wiener Holocaust Library's efforts in documenting eyewitness accounts following the Holocaust. Under the leadership of Jewish refugee scholar Dr. Eva Reichmann, the project collected over 1,200 accounts from refugees and survivors, many of which were recorded by survivors themselves. The discussion will highlight the significant contributions of German Jewish women in the creation of this and other postwar archives.

Dr. Schmidt earned her PhD from Clark University in 2003 and has taught as an adjunct distance education lecturer at Gratz College and the University of Maryland Global Campus. She has also worked with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum on the Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos and served as the Director of Education for the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous in New York.  She is also the Deputy National Coordinator for EHRI-UK, the UK’s national node of the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure.

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Please register here:

See attached flyer for more information.

October 7, 2024, marked the one-year anniversary of the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel. Although the Voice/Vision Archive maintains a policy of remaining apolitical, I mention this event and the ensuing conflict to introduce an important observation.

Since October 7, I have been repeatedly asked by press outlets, colleagues from other institutions, and friends, "What’s happening at UM-Dearborn?" There seems to be an expectation of unrest among our students. Yet, I often sense their disappointment when I respond that, in fact, our campus remains quite calm. "It’s quiet," I tell them. When they press for reasons behind this quietness, I explain that our students are balancing numerous commitments. Their obligations to school, work, and family leave them little time for protests or marches, at least while they are on campus.

To equate this quietness and focus on immediate concerns with indifference, however, would be a mistake. Our students and faculty are deeply engaged in thoughtful, yet challenging dialogues about the events of October 7 and the subsequent developments. These discussions unfold in hallways, the library, and the University Center, but most importantly, they take place in the classroom. In courses like Aspects of the Holocaust, we draw upon survivor testimonies from the Voice/Vision Archive to foster empathy and understanding of individual suffering caused by political, military, or terroristic actions.

The new film, One Life, starring Anthony Hopkins as Sir Nicholas Winton, the British stockbroker who saved 669 Jewish children while on holiday in Czechoslovakia in 1939 is getting great reviews and following its US release on March 15, has been widely viewed.[1]

For many, this will be their first encounter with the story of Nicholas Winton. For the Voice/Vision Archive, Nicholas Winton is an old acquaintance, though we never met in person.

In 2005, the archive was approached by the Gelman Education Foundation to screen the documentary,  The Power of Good. The film, directed by Matej Mináč, chronicled the then somewhat hidden life of Winton, who, with the outbreak of the war in September 1939, returned to England, joined the Royal Air Force, married, raised a family and never talked about what he had done in Prague. It was only later, with the discovery of some old notebooks by Winton’s wife Grete, that the story came to light.

How or why we were chosen to screen the film was never made clear to me, but I remember that Sid Bolkosky, founder and director of Voice/Vision seemed hesitant to align the positive message of the film with the mission of the archive. Sid always seemed hesitant to look for positive messages from the Holocaust, especially when they seemed staged or contrived. I think, however that the film changed his mind, at least a little. Unlike the motivations of Oskar Schindler, whose rescue of 1200 Jews in Krakow were often morally questionable, at least at first, Winton’s actions stemmed from a genuinely altruistic impulse combined with one part English phlegm along with several parts’ pragmatic realism, summed up best by Winton, "There is nothing that can't be done if it's fundamentally reasonable."

Thanks to a generous donation from the Gelman Foundation, Sid traveled to Israel in 2008 and interviewed 11 of the children saved by Winton and those interviews, along with two previously conducted ones are available on the archive’s website.

I’ve worked with the Voice/Vision interviews for almost 24 years now and have taught about the Holocaust for almost as long. Although I still share Sid’s hesitation about contrived “feel good” stories and the Holocaust, Winton’s story isn’t one of these, it stands rather as a testament to the power of true altruism and what it can accomplish.

In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day,

 The Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive presents:

“Jewish Children Speak: Witnesses and Survivors.”

A discussion with with Dr. Verena Buser, Associate Researcher Holocaust Studies Program/Western Galilee College Akko, Israel.

Dr. Buser will talk about the everyday life of Jewish children during the Holocaust, as well as other instances where atrocities were carried out against children. She will also discuss why it is important to analyze history through the eyes of children.

WHEN: Monday, January 29, 2024

 12 pm EST.

This is a Zoom event and is free and open to the public.

Registration Required:

Please join us on Monday, November 6 at 1 pm, when Voice/Vision Archive Dr. Jamie Wraight will be in conversation with award winning journalist Jonathan Freedman as he discuses his book, The Escape Artist. A Jewish Book Club award winner, the book tells the story of Rudolf Vrba, the man who escaped from Auschwitz and his efforts to warn the world of a truth too few were willing to hear.

A Jewish Book Club award winner, the book tells the story of Rudolf Vrba, the man who escaped from Auschwitz and his efforts to warn the world of a truth too few were willing to hear.

This event is free and will be held virtually via YouTube and live streamed in the Janice Charach Gallery.

Please preregister at https://jccdet.typeform.com/to/RBFV75c2

Sponsors:

Platinum Day Sponsor: Ellen and Jerold Minkin

Bronze Book Sponsor: The Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive.

In collaboration with the Women’s and Gender Studies Department and Women in Leadership and Learning (WILL), we will be hosting a virtual performance and chat with the creators of The Amazing Life of Margo Heuman, a play about the first, and possibly the last, lesbian Holocaust survivor to bear testimony. We are very grateful to have Director/ co-author Dr. Erika Hughes and co-author Dr. Anna Hájková join us to share more about this incredible story.

Join us for a book talk with acclaimed historian Dr. Jeffrey Veidlinger as he discusses his book, In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The Pogroms of 1918–1921 and the Onset of the Holocaust. 

This is a Zoom event on January 27 at 11am. More details in the flyer below.

Join here: https://umich.zoom.us/j/96931366650

Join us for a discussion on "Drunk on Genocide" with author Edward Westermann! 

This is a Zoom discussion. Join here: https://umich.zoom.us/j/92262200254

On Wednesday January 27, Natalia Aleksiun, Associate Professor of Modern Jewish History, the Touro College Graduate School of Jewish Studies, will present, “Intimate Violence: Jewish Testimonies about the Holocaust in Eastern Europe.”

January 27 is also International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005, it marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in January 1945 and is commemorated by UNESCO to “pay tribute to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and [to] reaffirm its unwavering commitment to counter antisemitism, racism, and other forms of intolerance that may lead to group-targeted violence.”

Please join us for this talk and commemorative event starting at 12 pm EST via Zoom:

https://umich.zoom.us/j/95908394366

This event is free and open to the public. No registration is required.

Sponsored by the Voice/Vision Archive, The Frank and Mary Padzieski Endowed Professorship in Polish/Polish American/Eastern European Studies and our community partner, The Holocaust Memorial Center-Zekelman Family Campus.

As we celebrate the Festival of Lights beginning Thursday, December 10th through the 18th, please remember that even though we are not able to be together in person, that we will always remain connected. Your Voice/Vision Holocaust Archive family wishes to share this blessing with you and your loved ones. Barukh atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melekh ha’olam, shehekheyanu v’kiy’manu v’higiyanu laz’man hazeh. (Blessed are you Adonai our God, Ruler of the universe, who gave us life, sustains us, and enabled us to reach this season.)

Chag Sameach,

Voice/Vision had the honor of hosting Dr. Michael Berenbaum on October 14, 2018 where he presented "Holocaust Denial, Vulgarization and and Falsification." We recently found out about a documentary that Dr. Berenbaum has taken part in and wanted to share. Dr. Berenbaum … himself —historian and professor of Jewish studies is one of the historians and curators of various Holocaust memorials provide the historical background as “#AnneFrank” visits a rail car museum exhibit, or the Czech Pinkas Synagogue, where the names of all the Czech Jews murdered in the Shoah are written on the walls. The film’s purpose is not merely to tell the story of Anne Frank, as many have before, or to visualize her environment and the facts of her life, but rather to look at Anne’s generation of teenagers and open up specifically for young people the difficult questions of how such blind evil could occur, before asking how each of us will respond. This is a mirror for us all. Through Anne’s diary, survivors’ recollections and historical footage, we can feel as though we are there with Anne. The narrator declares that the glimpse into Anne’s household is like watching ourselves and imagining how we and our families would react in the same situation. Would we not become irritable, wildly rebellious and drawn into fantasies as an escape from our ‘prison’? Would we pretend, ignore mistreatment, or conform ourselves in order to keep safe and comfortable? Could we still be ‘me’ at all? Of course, looking in a mirror is not always pleasant, but it is important. If we see bad signs, we can do something to stop them from worsening. Also, in this ‘mirror’ we feel uncomfortable as we see the footage of embarrassed villagers who’ve been living alongside the German concentration camps without opposing them (for if they had, their lives would surely have been cut short). As a consequence for turning a blind eye to gross evils, the locals are forced by Allied soldiers to enter the concentration camps, view the extreme destruction and personally handle the bodies, granting them proper burial. “The moral lesson: it’s very much about those little moments… choices.”