The Wonder of Their Voices: The 1946 Holocaust Interviews of David Boder

by Alan Rosen

Over the last several decades, video testimony with aging Holocaust survivors has brought these witnesses into the limelight. Yet the success of these projects has made it seem that little survivor testimony took place in earlier years. In truth, thousands of survivors began to recount their experience at the earliest opportunity. This book provides the first full-length case study of early postwar Holocaust testimony, focusing on David Boder's 1946 displaced persons interview project. In July 1946, Boder, a psychologist, traveled to Europe to interview victims of the Holocaust who were in the Displaced Persons (DP) camps and what he called "shelter houses." During his nine weeks in Europe, Boder carried out approximately 130 interviews in nine languages and recorded them on a wire recorder.
Likely the earliest audio recorded testimony of Holocaust survivors, the interviews are valuable today for the spoken word (that of the DP narrators and of Boder himself) and also for the song sessions and religious services that Boder recorded. Eighty sessions were eventually transcribed into English, most of which were included in a self-published manuscript. Alan Rosen sets Boder's project in the context of the postwar response to displaced persons, sketches the dramatic background of his previous life and work, chronicles in detail the evolving process of interviewing both Jewish and non-Jewish DPs, and examines from several angles the implications for the history of Holocaust testimony.
Such early postwar testimony, Rosen avers, deserves to be taken on its own terms rather than to be enfolded into earlier or later schemas of testimony. Moreover, Boder's efforts and the support he was given for them demonstrate that American postwar response to the Holocaust was not universally indifferent but rather often engaged, concerned, and resourceful.

336 pages, Hardcover

First published October 7, 2010

Reviews

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Dr. Rosen for your thorough research and well written account of a remarkable man, Dr. David Boder. His legacy at Illinois Institute of Technology continues through your book. For this and the dedication, compassion, and respect you have for Boder is forever appreciated.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

In July 1946, David Boder, a psychology professor and naturalized US citizen, journeyed to Europe with the goal of audio recording interviews with displaced persons in camps across the continent. Rosen’s book provides an in depth look into this work, giving an overview of Boder’s background and chronicling the interview project from its conception to Boder’s death. The author explains that the interview project is among the earliest of audio recorded Holocaust testimony, and that Boder’s use of a wire recorder to interview DPs is distinctly unique. He maintains, however, that “their value lies in what they teach us about the history and nature of Holocaust testimony” (p.ix).