Tips for our visitors

"The Long Shadow of Sobibor" represents a unique historical document and as such a fine example of oral history. Key to oral history are personal, oral testimonials: recollections of individuals are registered and make up the story of a life. This type of research is about intricate knowledge of experiences and ways of remembrance, not fact finding, and opens up information that otherwise would be lost. Oral history provides insights into people's ways of giving meaning to what they've gone through.

Unique material
Statements in the interviews will not always be exactly true. The chronology of events diffuses with time; emotions and experiences are what remain. People may confuse years and dates. This is all in the game. "The Long Shadow of Sobibor" is not an educational website, but it is usable for educative purposes, such as writing papers. When consulting this collection of interviews one should be aware of the unique and specific characteristics of oral history. In order to know exactly what happened, one should refer to other resources as well.

Other testimonials
The interviews often refer to earlier interviews given by the same persons.
Seventeen interviewees are represented at the Jewish Historical Museum and the "Hollandsche Schouwburg". These institutions manage the Dutch part of the so-called Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Collection. This large-scale project, initiated by the film director, Steven Spielberg, comprises filmed interviews with over 50,000 Shoah survivors world-wide and 2,000 in the Netherlands.
The sobiborinterviews.nl theme gives access to interviews with survivors of the Sobibor revolt that can be played immediately.
You are redirected to other organizations to watch interviews if applicable.

Durability
The full transcripts are stored at DANS, Data Archiving and Networking Services, thus warranting durable access tot the interviews.