Europe Fieldwork from the Wexler Oral History Project
Browse photos from the Wexler Oral History Project's fieldwork in London, Copenhagen, and Vienna.
Published on July 05, 2023.
Christa Whitney, director of the Wexler Oral History Project, has just returned from travels in London, Copenhagen, and Vienna, where she conducted fieldwork and attended the premiere screenings of the Center’s award-winning documentary film Ver Vet Blaybn? (Who Will Remain?). Some highlights from her trip include an interview conducted entirely in Yiddish with Rachel Levy, a survivor of Auschwitz, an interview with Sonia Gollance, professor of Yiddish at University College London (and Steiner alum!), and the fruit pie 96-year-old Hersh-Shmuel Schwarz baked and served with coffee before telling his fascinating and harrowing life story in a geshmakn (delicious) Polish Yiddish.
Browse the slideshow below for more highlights from Christa's travels.
Wexler Oral History Project Fieldwork
96-year-old native Yiddish speaker, Hersh-Shmuel (Henning) Schwarz, originally from Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland, Holocaust survivor, poses in front of a painting he says represents his early post-WW2 days in Copenhagen
Post-interview dessert of baked figs and rum raisin ice cream in Copenhagen, courtesy of Hersh-Shmuel (Henning) Schwarz
Sonia Gollance, professor of Yiddish at University College London, holds her recently published book It Could Lead to Dancing: Mixed-Sex Dancing and Jewish Modernity. In her oral history, she talked about her academic path as a Yiddishist, including how she took many risks moving between countries for jobs before she found her current position at UCL. (Fun fact: Sonia and Christa started out studying Yiddish together at the Yiddish Book Center’s Steiner Summer Oral History!)
An iconic double-decker red bus travels under the flags still up from the coronation in Westminster
Rachel Levy shows the British Empire Medal she received from the royal family in recognition of her contributions to Holocaust education in the country telling the story of her survival, including of Auschwitz. In her interview (in gantsn af yidish! entirely in Yiddish!), she remembered details of her childhood in a small village in a valley amidst the Carpathian Mountains.
Oral historian, writer, and counselor Shivaun Woolfson at a pub where she and Christa met prior to the interview in a small village in East Sussex, England. Shivaun spoke about her childhood in the Jewish community in Dublin and her work documenting the lives of Jewish elders in Vilnius.
Beautiful flowers and a welcoming sign spotted along the Danube in Vienna
Yiddish journalist Philip Schwartz interviewed at the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI)
Narrow street from the old city section of Copenhagen
A full house for the sold out UK premiere of Ver Vet Blaybn? (Who Will Remain?) at JW3 in north London. Organized by Spiro Ark, the event featured introductions from JW3’s Judy Trotter, Nitza Spiro of Spiro Ark, Christa, and Hadas Kalderon (via prerecorded video from Tel Aviv). The screening was followed by commentary from Yiddish scholar Helen Beer and a dramatic reading of an English translation of Sutzkever’s poem “Dos yingl fun ayzn (The boy of steel)".
Memorial to victims of Nazi tyranny at the former site of the Gestapo building in Vienna
Audience watches Sutzkever onscreen during Ver Vet Blaybn? screening in Vienna
Fortunoff Archives director Stephen Naron poses a question to Christa Whitney after our Austrian premiere screening of Ver Vet Blaybn? (Who Will Remain?) at Cine Center in Vienna, Austria. (Photo from Teresa Preis of the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (c) VWI)
Christa and Yiddish Book Center alumna Nadja Shannon-Dabek caught up over elderflower kombucha at a trendy bookstore in central London
Our Danish premiere of Ver Vet Blaybn? (Who Will Remain?) at the Jødisk Kulturfestival (Jewish Culture Festival) in Copenhagen