The memorial's collection of interviews
To date, more than 450 audiovisual interviews totalling around 2100 hours have been recorded. The material has been fully digitised and has been available in full HD format since 2010. It includes biographies of people born between 1911 and 1976 from 23 different countries. The Collection forms a central source material of the memorial.
The audiovisual documentation of life stories centres on the survivors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. In accordance with the prisoner structure, the number of interviews with Jewish people and politically persecuted persons predominates. Around a third of the interviews were conducted with so-called child survivors who were subjected to persecution as children. In addition, a smaller number of interviews were conducted with Sinti* and Roma*, former Polish and Soviet Prisoners of War, Italian Military Internees and other eye witnesses such as former British soldiers, members of aid organisations in the DP camp and local residents. Decades after the liberation, it was no longer possible to speak to women and men of all prisoner categories. For example, there are no interviews from the group of men imprisoned in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp because of their homosexuality. The same applies to former prisoners from the groups of so-called "antisocials" or "professional criminals".
Expanding our stock of interviews
In recent years, new groups of witnesses have been included in the interview project, such as the so-called second generation (children of survivors) and people who can contribute important knowledge to the local culture of remembrance and the history of the memorial site.
The biographies show the individual experience and personal view of the historical events on the basis of individual fates. They supplement the incomplete records and address events and situations about which little or nothing is known from other sources. Many aspects, in particular the history of the camp and the living and survival conditions, can only be documented through these ego documents. The life history approach of the interviews documents not only the phase of Nazi persecution and the Second World War, but also the life situation of the people before and after.