Was Their Voice Heard?

This book is an edited collection of papers, in Hebrew, addressing the unique phenomenon of the collection of testimonies from child survivors of the Holocaust while they were still children or teenagers in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust. The instructions for these interviews go as far back as 1945. The book maps the collecting, publication and filming of testimonies and addresses issues of authenticity, methodology dissemination and reception.

Who interviewed the children and how? What is the correct way to read these interviews and what can be studied from them? Do the existing interviews faithfully reflect the children's experiences and feelings? What was the cultural and social background of these interviews and their publication?

These testimonies teach the strategies Jewish families used to save themselves and especially the children: not passively like 'sheep to the slaughter' but coping with changing situations by struggling . The testimonies also teach us about the relationship between Jews and gentiles; rescue and sacrifice on the part of non-Jews on the one hand, and the persecution and murder on the other. 

Some of the papers are adapted translation of papers published in English and some were written for this volume by historians, linguists and literati. Included is also contemporary material from the period.  

Participating researchers: Boaz Cohen, Joanna Michlic, Gabriel Finder, Beate Muller, Rita Horvath, Zuzanna Schnepf-Kolacz, Sharon Geva, Emunah Nachmani-Gafni and Yvonne Kozlovski-Golan