A snippet of text from Edith Zierer’s story in 1946

In 1946, Edith Zierer, who was only fifteen years old, was interviewed by David Boder at the Bellevue orphanage for displaced Jewish children in Paris. The interview was conducted in German. 57 years later, in June 2003, she was interviewed again in Hebrew by an interviewer from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The purpose of this assignment is to illustrate how the narrative on a similar topic – experiences in concentration camps and their impact on one’s life – changes over time and is determined by the age and status of both interviewer and narrator. You will be comparing features of the interview held in 1946 to the one conducted in 2003.

Instructions

11.a A child of 15 compared to a women of 70 | 60 min

  • What are the most striking differences between the interview in 1946 and the one in 2003?
  • Listen to to the audio of Edith Zierer in German in 1946 and take notes.
    • In the template there are instructions about what you should pay attention to.
    • If you don’t master German, open the English translation in another window.
  • Watch the video interview conducted in Hebrew in 2003,
    • In the template there are instructions about what you should pay attention to.
    • If you don’t master Hebrew, download the English translation and open it in another window. Document your findings in the table in your template.

11.b Different technologies for recording | 30 min

  • What kind of technology was used to create the original interview with Edith Zierer in 1946 and the original interview in 2003?
  • How does this relate to the document that you are consulting online? Document your findings in your template.

Reading/viewing suggestions