About the Fortunoff Archive
The Fortunoff Archive currently holds more than 4,400 testimonies, which are comprised of over 12,000 recorded hours of videotape. Testimonies were produced in cooperation with thirty-six affiliated projects across North America, South America, Europe, and Israel. The Fortunoff Archive and its affiliates recorded the testimonies of willing individuals with first-hand experience of the Nazi persecutions, including those who were in hiding, survivors, bystanders, resistants, and liberators. Testimonies were recorded in whatever language the witness preferred, and range in length from 30 minutes to over 40 hours (recorded over several sessions).
Viewing and Use of Testimonies
Researchers can visit either Yale University (by appointment) or an access site to view testimonies from our collection. You do not need to be part of the Yale community or affiliated with an academic institution to use our testimonies.
All researchers must follow these four steps to view testimonies:
- Step 01 / Register in Aviary: Click on Log In, and then Join Now. Please check the password help if you have trouble creating a password.
- Step 02 / Respond to Confirmation Email: After you submit the form, you will receive a confirmation email. Check your spam if it doesn’t show up in your inbox. This is just to verify you are indeed a human and not a bot.
- Step 03 / Search and Request Access to Testimonies: After conducting a search, click on a testimony in the search results and then request access. You should receive an approval email a few minutes after you make your request.
- Step 04 / View Testimonies: Once you've received your email with request approval, you can view all testimonies in the collection.
Again, you must be physically located at an access site, or using an access site VPN/Ezproxy, to use the collection if you are not a Yale affiliate.
Our testimonies are not just available for research–we also release excerpts of them for use in publications, documentaries, films, podcasts, and other media. Licensing is required and limits on testimony usage may apply. We encourage you to contact us to learn more.
