Those Who Were There: Voices from the Holocaust
Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
Show overview
Those Who Were There: Voices from the Holocaust has been publishing since 2019, and across the 6 years since has built a catalogue of 35 episodes. That works out to roughly 15 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a roughly quarterly cadence.
Episodes typically run twenty to thirty-five minutes — most land between 23 min and 30 min — and the run-time is fairly consistent across the catalogue. None of the episodes are flagged explicit by the publisher. It is catalogued as a EN-US-language Education show.
The catalogue appears to be on hiatus or wound down — the most recent episode landed 1.3 years ago, with no new episodes in over a year. The busiest year was 2023, with 11 episodes published. Published by Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies.
From the publisher
Survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust are the subjects of “Those Who Were There,” a new podcast from Yale University’s Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. The podcast is narrated by Eleanor Reissa, actress and Yiddish theater director, and historical oversight by Professor Samuel Kassow. “Those Who Were There” podcast features audio from videotaped interviews conducted between 1979 up to the present. "Back in 1979, video was regarded as a remarkable, groundbreaking technology for documenting the experiences of survivors. The testimonies that resulted were and remain very powerful,” said Stephen Naron, director of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. “Today, by adapting our holdings to the podcast format, we have an opportunity to bring these intimate personal accounts of Holocaust survivors and witnesses to a world-wide listenership. After all, only a fraction of our more than 4,400 testimonies have ever been viewed. Every voice, every story is important, and the podcast is a chance to provide a public space for each survivor, one episode at a time.” The podcast’s first season will feature 10 episodes, including accounts from Jewish survivors, non-Jewish witnesses and liberators. The memories shared express a wide range of experiences before, during and after the Second World War by those who experienced it. Still, it is only a small glimpse into the thousands of stories held in this diverse archive.
Latest Episodes
View all 35 episodesS3 Ep 11In Memoriam: Renee Hartman (1933-2025)
<p>Renee Hartman was one of the first four survivors to give testimony to the Fortunoff Archive's predecessor organization in 1979. &nbsp;In this podcast episode, she describes how she was just a child when the Nazis swept into Czechoslovakia. Her parents and sister were deaf, so she became her family&rsquo;s ears, alert to the sound of the Gestapo&rsquo;s boots.We&rsquo;re re-releasing this episode in celebration of her life.&nbsp;</p>
S3 Ep 10Chapter 10: Aftermath
<p>In this final chapter of &ldquo;Remembering Vilna,&rdquo; several of the survivors whose stories we&rsquo;ve featured tell of their journeys to safety and new beginnings, even as the traumas they experienced remained ever present.</p>
S3 Ep 9Chapter 9: Judgment and Revenge
<p>At war&rsquo;s end, Vilna&rsquo;s survivors struggle to regain their health, look for missing family members, and search for ways to leave Europe for the United States or Palestine. But a small group join an effort to seek revenge in Nuremberg, where an international tribunal is underway.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>