ABSTRACT
Immigrants to France, Canada, and the United States from dictatorial, war-torn, or poverty-stricken countries speak on these pages. They came as children or young adults from Germany, Japan, Poland, Mexico, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Seychelles. They present examples of memory, strong emotions, and ethical considerations as they apply to family oral history. Specifically, the reader will find a research study summary that indicates fading memories of the holocaust save for museums, literature, and media. This chapter adds to the literature in vivid first-person narrations ranging from disturbing to joyful, both set in old country and new. The narrations exemplify the expressions of second language speakers, the effect of the passage of time on a lost-and-found oral history interview, family members trying to get others to speak up, historical context embedded explicitly or between the lines, the challenges of a husband-wife interview, and traumatic events influencing a life's work along with gratitude for the ancestors. The chapter ends with one speaker voicing the hope that oral history from survivors may play a part in deterring human-made suffering in the future.
