Centropa`s methodology for oral histories can be utilized by any organization, ethnic group or community, and we would be happy to help you adapt our templates, databases and methodology. Please bear in mind that our program is based on showing respondents their own family pictures, getting them to speak about the people in these photographs and telling us what was going on in their lives at that time.

Everything is recorded on audio tape over the course of three, four or five visits, transcribed word-for-word, edited so that all the questions are removed, then put into chronological order. Afterwards we visit our respondents again to fill in the missing gaps. In other words, the final result is an auto-biography.

Why don`t we use video? Most video interviews we have seen last for around two hours, and while most of the ones we`ve seen are excellent, we have chosen a different approach.

By using audio tape and helping an elderly person slowly and methodically build up their life story over several hours (usually between six to sixteen hours during a series of visits), we help them plum the depths of their experiences. Often times, first draft transcriptions run more than 150 pages. And do remember that our particular project does not focus solely on the Holocaust; rather on how their families lived, before, during and after the Shoah.

Below you will find various parts of our methodology in five languages, with Turkish soon to be added. Feel free to contact us at any time to learn more about our project. Just email the co-directors of our oral history projects: Ezster Andor and Dora Sardi, who can be reached at Budapest@centropa.org