The Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

09/04/2025

Let's Do Launch!

You are warmly invited to a book launch celebrating REMNANTS and What Remains: Moments from a Life Among Holocaust Survivors, the new book by Henry "Hank" Greenspan (Made in Michigan Writers series, Wayne State University Press, 2025). This event honors the memory of Professor Sidney Bolkosky, founder of the Voice/Vision Archive at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, to whom the book is dedicated.

Date and Time: Sunday, October 5, 2025, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. EST.

Location: Renick University Center, Kochoff Hall C, University of Michigan-Dearborn campus

(A virtual option is also available via Zoom.)

For In-Person Attendees: The event will take place in the Renick University Center, Kochoff Hall C on the UM-Dearborn campus. Light refreshments will be provided.

Directions to the UM-Dearborn campus and campus map:

https://umdearborn.edu/about-um-dearborn/visit-campus/maps-and-directions

To register for in-person attendance, contact Jamie Wraight at [email protected]

For online registration (required), click or paste in:

https://umich.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FiukzW7PSzOpiuhyrm6SGg

See flyer for more details.

01/08/2025

You are invited to a virtual talk by Dr. Christine Schmidt, Deputy Director and Head of Research at The Wiener Holocaust Library in London, on Thursday, January 23, 2025, at 12:30 PM EST. Dr. Schmidt, a UM-Dearborn alumna (CASL ’98), will present: “"We are All Witnesses": German Jewish Women and Archiving after the Holocaust.”

This lecture will delve into the unique history of The Wiener Holocaust Library's efforts in documenting eyewitness accounts following the Holocaust. Under the leadership of Jewish refugee scholar Dr. Eva Reichmann, the project collected over 1,200 accounts from refugees and survivors, many of which were recorded by survivors themselves. The discussion will highlight the significant contributions of German Jewish women in the creation of this and other postwar archives.

Dr. Schmidt earned her PhD from Clark University in 2003 and has taught as an adjunct distance education lecturer at Gratz College and the University of Maryland Global Campus. She has also worked with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum on the Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos and served as the Director of Education for the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous in New York. She is also the Deputy National Coordinator for EHRI-UK, the UK’s national node of the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure.

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Please register here:
https://umich.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GbR-hZKRQI6aIabxdAbY5g

See attached flyer for more information.

We hope you can join us for this insightful event.

03/23/2024

https://www.tumblr.com/voicevisarchive/745776905169616896/from-the-director-winter-2024?source=share

The new film, One Life, starring Anthony Hopkins as Sir Nicholas Winton, the British stockbroker who saved 669 Jewish children while on holiday in Czechoslovakia in 1939 is getting great reviews and...

01/24/2023

Antisemitism often appears and spreads on social media. But digital technology can be part of the solution, too.

01/06/2023

On Tuesday, January 24, Dr. Mehnaz Afridi, Professor of Religious studies and Director of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College will present, “Muslims and The Holocaust”.

Dr. Afridi teaches courses on Islam, the Holocaust, Genocide, comparative religion, and Feminism. Her book, Shoah through Muslim Eyes (Academic Studies Press, 2017) was nominated for the Yad Vashem International Book Prize for Holocaust Research. She won the 2022 award for the Lasallian Educator of the Year. She is co-editor with Mark Celinscak of International Approaches to the Holocaust, (University of Nebraska Press), and her forthcoming book is The Wounded Muslim, (Lexington Press).

Please join us for this talk starting at 1 pm EST via Zoom. This event is free and open to the public.

Registration required:

https://umich.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3_w2dbWNQveSal3uem3_aw

08/27/2022

“Tova Friedman survived a labour camp and the gas chamber at Auschwitz. Now, with the help of her teenage grandson, she is using social media to educate a new generation.”

Tova Friedman survived a labour camp and the gas chamber at Auschwitz. Now, with the help of her teenage grandson, she is using social media to educate a new generation

08/22/2022

We are very saddened by the news of the passing of Holocaust survivor Michael Weiss. His oral history is below.

Born in Kascony, Czechoslovakia, Michael chronicles his experiences under the Czechoslovakians, Hungarians, and Germans, both prior to and during, the Second World War. Mr. Weiss and his family were shipped to the Hungarian ghetto of Beregszasz (Berehovo) in 1944. From Beregszasz, the family was deported to Auschwitz, where his mother was gassed by the Germans. From Auschwitz, Weiss and his father were sent to Buchenwald and then on to Zeitz, located approximately fifteen miles south of Leipzig in Central Germany.

August 9, 1995Born in Kascony, Czechoslovakia, Michael Weiss chronicles his experiences under the Czechoslovakians, Hungarians, and Germans, both prior to an...

07/17/2022

I'm honored to have co-authored his short article with student intern, Mackenzie Kortes!

Working Remotely, Together: Challenges and Opportunities for Building Student-Faculty Partnerships during COVID By Mackenzie Kortes and Jamie L. Wraight (Mackenzie’s contribution is formatted in bold and Jamie’s is left unbolded.) Established by UM-Dearborn History professor Sid Bolkosky in 1981...

04/30/2022

The Zekelman Holocaust Center

04/19/2022

April 19 marks the 79th anniversary of the start of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising that occurred in 1943.

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03/26/2022

The Voice/Vision Archive is saddened by the news of Vera Gissing’s passing. One of the over 600 Czech children saved by Nicholas Winton, Vera was interviewed by the archive in 2006.

One of at least 669 children rescued by Nicholas Winton on the eve of World War II, she offered her survival as evidence of the good that can be achieved through the kindness of a single person.

03/09/2022

In collaboration with the Women's and Gender Studies Department and Women in Leadership and Learning (WILL), we will be hosting a virtual performance and chat with the creators of The Amazing Life of Margo Heuman, a play about the first, and possibly the last, le***an Holocaust survivor to bear testimony. We are very grateful to have Director/ co-author Dr. Erika Hughes and co-author Dr. Anna Hájková join us to share more about this incredible story.

When: Tuesday, March 15 at 12 pm EST
Join here: https://umich.zoom.us/j/96464056857
Meeting ID: 964 6405 6857