Jared Stark

Of particular importance are the institutional practices of the archives that collect and disseminate testimonies, such as pre-interview and interviewing parameters and protocols, cataloging methods and access policies, and forms of exhibition. Reframing Holocaust Testimony provides the first comprehensive overview of the institutional histories, policies, and practices of the three major archives of Holocaust video testimony: the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale, the oral history collection of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), and the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive (VHA), originally founded by Steven Spielberg after the filming of Schindler's List. After a useful methodological and historical introduction, Shenker devotes one chapter each to these archives, drawing on internal working papers, interviews with staff, and other sources to supply cogent and well-researched characterizations of the explicit and implicit preferences, values, and mandates of each institution.