Phone: (317) 232-3675
Contact: Manuscript Librarian
Business Hours: Vary
Holdings:
The primary focus of the Indiana State Library's oral history collection is on local residents and local affairs. The library's catalogue lists interviewees by name, with limited subject entries reflecting the content of the interviews.
In addition, the library holds three interviews donated by B. Riesterer. The first is an oral history interview with Erich L. T. Riesterer (1896-1983), conducted in German between 1975 and 1977. The transcript is 1,056 triple-spaced pages (forty-five tapes) long, including a table of contents, maps, and illustrations. Riesterer recounts his experiences as a German soldier on the eastern front during World War I and the postwar situation in Germany.
A second interview, with Hugo E. Heurich (1908-1982) in 1980, is 150 double-spaced pages and seven tapes in length. There is a table of contents. In this interview, conducted in English, Heurich discusses his antifascist activities in Spain in 1937-38. He presents an example of the antifascist mentality and general political outlook of socially active German immigrants in the late 1930s.
The Indiana State Library also holds an oral history interview with Hermann and Lotte Termeer. Hermann Termeer, a former amateur athlete, served in the Wehrmacht from 1939 to 1941. The two discuss their experiences living in Nazi Germany, from the rise of Hitler until the Allied occupation ended in 1948. The interview, conducted in German, is 127 single-spaced pages and eight tapes in length.
Indiana University
Oral History Research Center
Memorial Hall West, Room 401
Bloomington, IN 47405
Phone: (812) 855-2856
E-Mail Address: ohrc@indiana.edu
Contact: Barbara Truesdell, Research Specialist and
Oral Historian
Business Hours: 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Mon.-Fri.;
hours may differ in August
Holdings:
The Oral History Research Center at Indiana University has a substantial oral history collection; over fourteen hundred interviews have been recorded since 1968. The main focus of the program is American, Indiana, and Midwest history, but the holdings include interviews on many other topics.
The "Dubois County in the Interwar Years" collection of 1994 includes ten interviews dealing with the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Topics include the Depression, World War II, German clubs, and German language in Dubois County.
The ten interviews in the 1993 collection, "German-Americans in Dubois County," cover the time period from 1930 to the 1990s and deal with preserving German heritage and language, multicultural education, and the Holocaust.
"Immigrant Groups in Indiana," from 1978, includes fifteen interviews with members from ten ethnic groups in the state. The interviews cover the 1910s to the 1970s. Other notable collections include: "Manhattan Project," dealing with the making of the nuclear bomb; "Military Racism," which covers World War I through Vietnam; and "U.S. Foreign Relations in World War II." Additionally, the "Religion and Ethnicity in DuBois County" and "Hoosier Faiths, Hoosier Communities" collections include relevant interviews.
Most of the recent collections have been transcribed and are indexed with a table of contents. The center maintains a card catalogue finding aid and plans to convert its holdings to a computer database. Photocopying and audiotape duplication services are provided for a fee.
For more information on the holdings at the Oral History Research Center, contact the staff or review the information and collections list (up to 1994) on the World Wide Web.
University of Notre Dame
Archives
607 Hesburgh Library
South Bend, IN 46556
Phone: (219) 631-6448
Fax: (219) 631-7980
E-Mail Address: archives.1@nd.edu
Contact: William Kevin Cawley, Archivist
Business Hours: 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Mon.-Fri.
Holdings:
Among the substantial archival holdings of the University of Notre Dame are the papers of George Nauman Shuster (1894-1977). Shuster was both a student and faculty member at Notre Dame and served as state commissioner for Bavaria in 1950-51.
The Shuster papers contain correspondence, writings, and other items, including letters from, among others, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Dietrich von Hildebrand, Heinrich Brüning, and Konrad Adenauer. There is also material concerning Shuster's visits to Germany in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s and his conversations with German intellectuals, politicians, soldiers, and refugees.
In addition, the Shuster papers include transcribed interviews with several prominent Germans, such as General Heinz Guderian, Dr. Wilhelm Pater, Wilhelm Frick, and Karl Ritter. Several entries in the list of Shuster papers are labeled as "conversations," and it is unclear whether these items are truly "oral histories." The individuals mentioned in these conversations include General von Epp, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Field Marshall List, Field Marshal Weichs, and Leopold Buerkner.
Researchers should contact the University of Notre Dame Archives for more information on the Shuster papers or other accessions. Also, the archives has posted a finding aid on the Internet.
University of Southern Indiana
Archives
8600 University Blvd.
Evansville, IN 47712
Phone: (812) 464-1896
Fax: (812) 465-1693
E-Mail Address: gwalker.ucs@smtp.usi.edu
Contact: Gina Walker, Archivist
Business Hours: 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. and
1:00 p.m.-4:30 p.m., Mon.-Fri.
Holdings:
The University of Southern Indiana Archives holds several oral history interviews of interest to German scholars.
Two interviews deal with the war crimes trials at Nuremberg. Charles Marion LaFollette, military governor of Wurttemberg-Baden (1948-1949), was interviewed in 1971 and 1972. This interview is five-and-a-half hours long and has been transcribed. A ninety-minute interview with Arthur R. Donovan, an Indiana attorney present at the trials, was conducted in 1991 and has not been transcribed.
The archives also holds approximately forty oral history interviews used as research for a book by Darrel E. Bigham, Reflections on a Heritage: The German-Americans in Southwestern Indiana (Evansville: Indiana State University, 1980). Most of these interviews range from thirty to ninety minutes in length, and all have been transcribed.
Phone: (913) 263-4751
Fax: (913) 263-4218
E-Mail Address: library@eisenhower.nara.gov
Contact: James W. Leyerzapf, Archivist
Business Hours: 9:00 a.m.-4:45 p.m., Mon.-Fri.;
Sat. by appointment
Holdings:
Among the holdings of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library is a large and growing oral history collection. Over 520 interviews, approximately equal to thirty-three thousand pages, have been conducted with individuals who were in some way connected to Eisenhower.
The collection has been created from two main sources. In 1960, the library began a cooperative agreement with the Columbia University Oral History Project whereby Columbia's relevant interviews would be deposited at the Eisenhower Library. The library began its own oral history project in 1963. In addition, the library houses a number of transcripts donated by individuals or other institutions.
There is a list of the oral history interviews held by the library in Historical Materials in the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, printed in 1996. Each entry includes the name of the interviewee, a brief biographical note on the interviewee's relationship to Eisenhower, the date of the interview, and its length in pages. Entries also provide each interview's accession number, source (Columbia, Eisenhower Library, or other) and any special restrictions on use of the transcript.
The list in the guide is a useful starting point for researchers who can recognize names, positions, or subjects that might be of interest. From there, researchers can consult the more detailed finding aids for each of the interviews. There is no comprehensive index to the oral history collection as a whole.
Promising interviews listed in the guide include those with: Lucius D. Clay, Mark Clark, William H. Draper, Eleanor Lansing Dulles, Alfred M. Gruenther, Hans von Herwarth, Frederick Peter Jessup, Lyman Lemnitzer, John J. McCloy, Lauris Norstad, Edward E. Rice, Robert L. Schulz, and Vernon Walters. Many of these interviews are also located at the Columbia University Oral History Research Office.
Transcripts are available for use at the library. In addition, many of the finding aids and most of the oral history transcripts (those that are not restricted), are available through interlibrary loan, subject to a limit of six items. The library maintains a current list of interviews that may be loaned. Contact the Interlibrary Loan Service at the library for more information.
Before using the collection, researchers must complete an application form stating the purpose of their research. Contact the staff of the Eisenhower Library for additional information.
Phone: (502) 852-6674
Fax: (502) 852-6673
E-Mail Address: archives@louisville.edu
Contact: Mary Margaret Bell, Co-Director
Business Hours: 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Mon.-Fri.;
closed holidays
Holdings:
The Oral History Center at the University of Louisville has several interviews of possible interest to scholars of German-American relations or immigration.
Within the center's "Education" collection are at least two interviews with university faculty who have ties to Germany. Several more interviews with first- and second-generation immigrants from Germany are part of two other collections, "Louisville's Ethnic Communities" and "City of Louisville." The relevant interviews in these two collections deal almost exclusively with stories of German, and mostly Jewish, immigration to Kentucky.
Each entry in the Oral History Center's guide gives the interviewee's name and a short paragraph description of the content of the interview. Entries also provide the interviewer's name; the length of the interview in minutes; tape numbers; and whether or not the interview is restricted, transcribed, or has a summary available. Many interviews have not been transcribed, but summaries are available for most of them. A few interviews have been restricted. Interviews vary in length from 30 to 150 minutes, but the average length is one hour.
A master index of names mentioned in the collections is available, and the center has recently begun creating an electronic index for easier searching.
Phone: (504) 388-6577
Fax: (504) 334-1695
E-Mail Address: notped@lsuvm.sncc.lsu.edu
Contact: Pamela Dean, Director
Business Hours: 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Mon.-Fri.
Holdings:
The T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History at Louisiana State University holds an oral history collection of almost five hundred interviews totaling over nine hundred hours of tape. The collection is focused primarily on the history of Louisiana and LSU.
However, the center is acquiring a collection of fourteen to twenty oral history interviews on youth programs run by American military personnel in postwar Germany. Many of the interviews were conducted in German.
When completed and fully accessioned, the tapes will have German and English indexes. Some will be transcribed. Each tape will have an abstract and subject access. Some interviews may be restricted and/or require permission of the interviewee.
The center also holds an interview with German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl.
Contact the Williams Center for current information on the status of the interviews. Or consult the center's Internet site.
Phone: (301) 209-3177
Fax: (301) 209-5144
E-Mail Address: nbl@aip.org
Contact: Caroline Moseley
Business Hours: 8:45 a.m.-4:45 p.m., Mon.-Fri.
Holdings:
The Niels Bohr Library is part of the Center for History of Physics of the American Institute of Physics. The center, which aims to preserve the history of modern physics and allied sciences, is the repository for the permanent records of the American Institute of Physics, the American Physical Society, and the American Astronomical Society, among others. It also houses many collections of personal and professional papers of individuals.
The Niels Bohr Library also has an extensive collection (over three thousand hours) of oral history interviews with eminent scientists. There is no discrete category for German-related topics or individuals, but there are finding aids to help locate relevant interviews. In addition, individual interviews include an index, and some have a table of contents as well.
The library has published a catalogue of its holdings and source materials located in other repositories, entitled Guide to the Archival Collections in the Niels Bohr Library. The guide includes an index of personal and institutional names and topics. It also describes the library's other collections, including correspondence and audio-visual holdings.
Researchers must complete an access application and receive approval before using the collection.
U.S. Naval Academy
Special Collections and Archives Division
Nimitz Library
Annapolis, MD 21402-5029
Phone: (410) 293-6913
Fax: (410) 293-4926
Contact: Alice S. Creighton, Head,
Special Collections & Archives
Business Hours: 9:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Mon.-Fri.;
closed holidays
Holdings:
The Nimitz Library at the U.S. Naval Academy houses over 250 oral history transcripts from the U.S. Naval Institute's oral history program, the Navy Chaplain Corps' oral history series, and the U.S. Marine Corps. The interviewees are usually prominent navy and marine corps senior officers. Interviews cover the period from post-World War I to the present, with greatest emphasis on the World War II period.
The library provides an on-line catalogue that lists the names of interviewees. A detailed index to the transcripts is available in the Special Collections Division for a search on German-related topics. The Naval Institute also has an index to the interviews up to circa 1986. Contact Paul Stilwell, Director, Oral History Program, U.S. Naval Institute, at (410) 268-6110.
Phone: (413) 542-2068
Fax: (413) 542-2692
E-Mail Address: ddarienzo@amherst.edu
Contact: Daria D'Arienzo, Archivist of the College
Business Hours: 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m., 1:00-4:00 p.m., Mon.-Fri.
Holdings:
The Amherst College Archives and Special Collections is the repository for the papers of John J. McCloy (1895-1989), a Philadelphia banker and public official who once served as the high commissioner for Germany (HICOG) in the 1940s and 1950s.
The John J. McCloy Papers are organized into thirty-four series. The collection is large, and oral history interviews are located in more than one series. A series list providing a comprehensive review of the John J. McCloy Papers provides information on the possibly relevant series. For example, series number twenty-two deals with Berlin, and series number twenty-five deals with NATO. Several transcripts of oral history interviews with John J. McCloy on various topics are located in series number 34, "Retrospectives."
Besides interviews on general topics and banking, the papers also include interviews focused on Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson; General Lucius D. Clay; John Foster Dulles; HICOG; and World War II. Unfortunately, the series list does not indicate the length of any of the transcripts.
Because oral history interviews were acquired from various sources (e.g., the Eisenhower interview from Columbia University and the Johnson interview from the University of Texas), copies must be requested from the institution of origin. Permission to publish must be requested of Amherst College, and photocopying is not permitted.
Boston University
Special Collections
Mugar Memorial Library
771 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215
Phone: (617) 353-3696
Fax: (617) 353-2838
Contact: Margaret R. Goostray, Associate Director,
Special Collections
Business Hours: 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Mon.-Fri.;
closed holidays and Christmas week
Holdings:
The Mugar Memorial Library at Boston University does not have a discrete oral history collection. However, the special collections department of the library does hold several archives and manuscript collections that may contain oral history interviews.
The university has published a master list of the approximately one thousand collections of personal papers that make up its Twentieth-Century Archives. The university has also broken down this list into several smaller collections in categories such as journalism, literary, public affairs and social and religious movements, theatre and film, music, and suspense and mystery writers.
Unfortunately, both the master list and the smaller, subject-specific lists include only the name of the individual (and an occasional institution) whose materials are on deposit at the library. No information on the size or nature of each collection is provided. Researchers would have to be able to recognize the names of individuals whose materials might be relevant to German studies. There is no access to the collections without going through the individual inventories.
The library also holds the Karl Fortess Collection of nearly two hundred interviews on reel-to-reel tapes with painters, printmakers, and sculptors. Most interviews range in length from thirty to forty-five minutes. Again, a name-only list is provided. Some of the individuals listed may be German-born or German-American, and some may discuss German art, but this is not readily apparent from the list of tapes.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library
Columbia Point
Boston, MA 02125
Phone: (617) 929-4534
E-Mail Address: library@kennedy.nara.gov
Contact: Maura Porter, Archivist
Business Hours: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Mon.-Fri.
Holdings:
One of the oldest continuing activities of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library is its oral history program. As part of its mission to gather and archive historical material related to the former president, the library has collected over eleven hundred interviews with individuals who were associated in some way with him.
In addition to prominent public officials, interviewees include lesser-known figures and "members of Congress, administration officials, national and state political leaders, business and labor leaders, journalists, civil rights leaders, foreign government officials, and people who opposed Kennedy administration policies."
The library also holds copies of oral history interviews conducted by other institutions or projects, such as Columbia University, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, and the U.S. Senate Historical Office. In addition, the oral history collection includes a series of interviews related to Robert F. Kennedy.
In 1993, the library published Historical Materials in the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library, compiled and edited by Ronald E. Whealan. The guide gives a broad overview of the library, its purpose and policies, and lists of the library's holdings.
The oral history section of the guide lists the names of the 910 interviewees whose transcripts have been processed into the collection. Each entry in the list includes the interviewee's name, dates of birth and death, and a brief description of his or her career and relationship to Kennedy. The entries give the date of the interview, its length in pages, and any special information on the origin of the interview, copyright, or other restrictions on use. A supplemental list of interviews opened or acquired since the guide's 1993 printing is also available.
Detailed finding aids for each collection are available at the library, as is a card catalog for the oral history collection. Name and subject indexes to open interviews are also available.
In addition, the library has compiled a research guide that provides a general overview of the breadth of material in the library related to Germany. It lists the names (with page references) of oral history interviews that contain subject matter related to Germany. This list is further broken down into subjects, such as JFK visit to Germany, U.S. relations, and the Berlin Crisis. Among the prominent names listed in the German research guide are Dean Acheson, Lucius D. Clay, and Martin Hillenbrand, director of the Office of German Affairs at the U.S. State Department and of the Berlin Task Force.
Most interviews are open for research. However, some interviewees have placed conditions on the use of their transcripts and/or tapes. Such restrictions are noted in the published guide, and the library has developed procedures for obtaining permission to use the interviews when required. In addition to the transcribed interviews, the library also holds many of the interview audio tapes. While some of these are open for researcher use, any quotation or citation must come from the printed transcript.
Unless prohibited by the donor, the library will provide complete or partial copies of interview transcripts for a fee. These copies may not be further reproduced or deposited elsewhere without written permission from the library's director. Most open interviews are also available through the interlibrary loan service. The library also provides prepaid and self-service photocopy service for unrestricted material.
The John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library is a research archive, and researchers are required to contact the staff prior to visiting the library to discuss research topics and library holdings. Researchers must also complete an application and a brief interview with staff prior to using the collections.
Phone: (313) 764-3482
Fax: (313) 936-1333
Contact: Nancy Bartlett
Business Hours: 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Mon.-Fri.;
9:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Sat. (Sept.-Apr.)
Holdings:
The Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan holds two collections with material related to Germany. Within the James Kerr Pollock papers (Box 70) are transcripts of oral history interviews conducted in 1961 in Germany on the Bundestag election. The Stanley Swinton papers (Box 1) contain an interview with Konrad Adenauer from 1960.
Information on the holdings of the Bentley Historical Library is available through RLIN, OCLC, and the Internet.
Phone: (612) 296-6126
Fax: (612) 296-9961
Contact: James E. Fogerty, Head,
Acquisitions and Curatorial Department
Business Hours: 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Mon.-Wed. and Fri.-Sat.; 9:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m., Thurs.
Holdings:
The information provided above applies to the central location of the Minnesota Historical Society, the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul. While many of the oral history interviews at the History Center may have some indirect relation to Germany-for example, immigrants of German ancestry-no oral history project or single interview at this location deals directly with the subject from 1945 to 1995.
However, several regional research centers elsewhere in Minnesota house and administer oral history collections owned by the Minnesota Historical Society. One of the regional centers is the Northwest Minnesota Historical Center at Moorhead State University, Moorhead, Minnesota 56560. Among its holdings is a project called "World War II: The Home Front in Western Minnesota." Descriptions of these interviews are published in The Oral History Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, compiled by Lila Johnson Goff and James E. Fogerty (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1984).
University of Minnesota
Charles Babbage Institute
103 Walter Library
117 Pleasant Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: (612) 624-5050
Fax: (612) 625-8054
E-Mail Address: bruce@fs1.itdean.umn.edu
Contact: Bruce H. Bruemmer, Archivist
Business Hours: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Mon.-Fri.
Holdings:
The Charles Babbage Institute at the University of Minnesota is a research center for the study and preservation of the history of information processing and the computer. The institute is comprised of a contemporary history center and an archival center.
The archives' collections, focused on the history of computing, include manuscripts, trade publications, manuals, photographs, and over three hundred oral history interviews. Of these three hundred interviews, several appear to deal with German-related topics.
For example, interviewees include: Konrad Zuse, a German calculator inventor; Curt Herzstark, an Austrian inventor and manufacturer who spent time in the Buchenwald concentration camp; and Friedrich Bauer, a German mathematician, physicist, and computer designer.
The Babbage Institute maintains databases relating to individual collections at the institute, as well as ready reference files. Finding aids are available. In addition, abstracts of oral history interviews have been prepared and can be searched electronically for relevant key words or names.
All oral histories are available for researcher use on-site at the institute. In addition, some of the interviews are available for purchase in a variety of formats: on paper, on computer disk, or by e-mail transfer. Interlibrary loan is also available. Contact the institute for current procedures and pricing.
Researchers are encouraged to investigate the Babbage Institute's pages on the World Wide Web, which give a general overview of the institute and its holdings. All of the oral history interview abstracts have been posted on the web, making it easy to determine which interviews are of interest, especially by searching for key words. The web pages also provide information on purchasing the interviews.
Phone: (816) 833-1400
Fax: (816) 833-2715
E-Mail Address: library@truman.nara.gov
Contact: Dennis E. Bilger, Archivist
Business Hours: 8:45 a.m.-4:45 p.m., Mon.-Fri.; 8:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m., Sat. by appointment
Holdings:
The Harry S Truman Library has a substantial collection of transcribed oral history interviews. Since 1961, when the oral history program began, over 460 interviews have been opened. Because Germany played an important role in American policy during Truman's presidency, Germany and German-related topics probably appear frequently among the library's oral history holdings.
In addition to a unified name and subject index to the entire oral history collection, the library has a list of the subjects covered in each interview. The library has recently published the Guide to Historical Materials in the Harry S. Truman Library, 11th ed. (April 1995), compiled by Raymond H. Geselbracht and Anita M. Smith.
The guide includes a listing of each oral history in its collection. Each entry includes the name of the interviewee, a brief biographical note, and the number of pages in the transcript. If an interview is closed or requires permission before use, that is noted in the list. Specific copyright restrictions are not noted in the list; this information, if applicable, is included with the individual transcript.
The guide, with its list of interviewee names, provides a good starting point for researchers. Promising interviews include those with Dean Acheson, Theodore C. Achilles, Konrad Adenauer, Lucius Battle, Bernard Bernstein, David K. E. Bruce, Henry Byroade, Bruce C. Clarke, Lucius D. Clay, Gunther Harkort, W. Averell Harriman, Charles P. Kindleberger, E. Allan Lightner Jr., H. Freeman Matthews, Paul H. Nitze, James W. Riddleberger, James H. Rowe Jr., Hans-Georg Sachs, Gustav A. Sonnenhol, Alexander von Susskind, and Leo R. Werts.
The oral history interview transcripts range from ten to over one thousand pages, with most falling between twenty and two hundred pages. Most of them have been individually indexed by name and subject. These indexes have been compiled into the unified index mentioned above.
Transcripts and collection finding aids are available at the library and on overnight or weekend loan to researchers working at the library. Researchers can also request transcripts or finding aids through interlibrary loan. Some information will also soon become accessible via the Internet.
Researchers are urged to contact the library staff prior to a visit. New researchers are asked to complete a brief application to use the Truman Library materials.
The library offers a duplication and mailing service for researchers requesting a specific oral history interview. Self-service copying is also available. Contact the library for current information on prices and procedures.
U.S. Army Engineer Museum
Attn: ATZT-PTM-PM
Ft. Leonard Wood, MO 65473-5165
Phone: (573) 596-0131
Fax: (573) 596-0169
Contact: Wilfried W.H. Rust, Curator of Collections
Business Hours: 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., Mon.-Fri.
Holdings:
The U.S. Army Engineer Museum hold the memoirs of three German POWs that were incarcerated at Ft. Leonard Wood from 1943 to 1946.
University of Missouri - Columbia
Western Historical Manuscript Collection
23 Ellis Library
Columbia, MO 65201
Phone: (573) 882-6028
E-Mail Address: whmc@ext.missouri.edu
Contact: Randy Roberts, Senior Manuscript Specialist
Business Hours: 8:00 a.m.-4:45 p.m., Mon.-Fri.
Holdings:
The Western Historical Manuscripts Collection at the University of Missouri - Columbia has extensive holdings on a wide range of topics, including those of state, regional, and national significance.
The collection, while including substantial oral history holdings, does not have an oral history collection devoted specifically to Germany or German-related subjects. However, the collection does include several oral history interviews with German-Americans in Missouri. Finding aids list collections by name, including a chronological file of collections by decade and an index of names, places, organizations, and topics.
In addition, the Western Historical Manuscripts Collection is the repository for the German Heritage Archives.
Also, the University of Missouri at St. Louis has a large oral history program, which includes interviews with, among others, immigrants to St. Louis.
Oral history interviews at the University of Missouri at Columbia are available as transcripts, tapes, and/or videotapes. Contact the staff for information on the various subjects of its collections.
Phone: (609) 795-5553
Fax: (609) 795-9398
E-Mail Address: 73740.3231@compuserve.com
Contact: Helene Zimmer-Loew, Executive Director
Business Hours: N/A
Holdings:
Although the American Association of Teachers of German does not hold an oral history collection per se, it has published a small collection of essays based on oral history interviews, Was nicht in dem Geschichtsbuch steht. Oral History 1930--1950, edited by Hildburg Herbst (Center Square, Penn.: Alpha Publications, Inc., 1982). The booklet was reprinted in 1986.
The collection of essays is the product of a Rutgers University course on "Germany from the Weimar Republic to the Present," in which students interviewed family members, friends, or acquaintances to gain a better understanding of life during the period. The goal of the booklet was to "make available a composite picture of the lives, fears, and quiet triumphs of ordinary people who did not make it into any history book."
The chapter headings in the 102-page booklet are: "Children in War," "Young Soldiers-Young Girls," "Life in Germany," "Jewish Fates," "Volks- und Auslandsdeutsche," "Air Raids," "The Last Days of War," "The First Postwar Years," "Seen From Abroad," and "The New World." It does not include an index.
The thirty interviewees in the collection came from a variety of backgrounds. Some were active in the German military during World War II; some of these became prisoners of war. Some were Jewish citizens who suffered discrimination and internment. Others were average citizens caught up in the rise of Nazism and the devastation of the war. All of the interviewees eventually emigrated to the United States or Canada.
The essays are written in German, but the booklet includes a preface and an introduction in English. Interested researchers should contact the association for information on acquiring the booklet.
Princeton University
Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library
65 Olden Street
Princeton, NJ 08544-2009
Phone: (609) 258-6345
Fax: (609) 258-3385
E-Mail Address: mudd@pucc.princeton.edu
Contact: Ben Primer, Archivist
Business Hours: 9:00 a.m.-4:45 p.m., Mon.-Fri.; 9:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m., Wed.; 8:45 a.m.-4:15 p.m., Mon.-Fri. during summer
Holdings:
The Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library and Archives at Princeton University holds the John Foster Dulles Oral History Collection, a group of nearly three hundred interviews conducted in the mid-1960s with friends and professional associates of John Foster Dulles about the man's personality, character, and career. The collection is part of the much larger documentary holdings on Dulles encom-passing about forty thousand documents and one hundred and twenty thousand microfilmed copies of material drawn from U.S. State Department files.
The oral histories total nearly twelve thousand pages in their transcribed form. The archive has an excellent finding aid, The John Foster Dulles Oral History Collection: A Descriptive Catalogue, revised in 1994. Each entry lists the name of the interviewee, date, length, access status, and a brief abstract of the interview's contents. The catalogue index includes numerous entries under the headings "Germany" and "Berlin."
The staff facilitates use of the transcripts on site. Researchers must show photo identification and register with the library before using the collection. Materials can also be requested on interlibrary loan. Scholarly Resources has made the interviews available on microfilm, allowing them to be purchased by many university libraries.
Rutgers University
Rutgers Oral History Archives of World War II
Department of History
Van Dyck Hall
New Brunswick, NJ 08903-5059
Phone: (908) 932-8190
Fax: (908) 932-6763
Contact: G. Kurt Piehler, Director and Research Associate
Business Hours: 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Mon.-Fri.
Holdings:
The Department of History at Rutgers University is compiling The Rutgers Oral History Archives of World War II to record the personal experiences of men and women who served on the home front and overseas. While the war itself is the main focus of the interviews, interviewees are encouraged to discuss their life stories and postwar attitudes, including service in the Army of Occupation. In order to understand World War II as being, in reality, many different wars, the project will interview individuals who served in all theaters of operations, in all branches of the military, and on the home front, whether in the factory, the farm, or at home.
The project has begun to conduct in-depth interviews, beginning with alumni from Rutgers College and Douglass College. The plan is to preserve the original tapes and edited transcripts in Rutgers Special Collection and University Archives at Alexander Library in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
During its first year, the project interviewed over 110 individuals and identified 225 people for future interviews. As of December 1, 1996, over 160 interviews had been conducted, although only a few of these interviews had been transcribed and reviewed.
No catalogue or finding aid yet exists for the collection. Interested researchers should contact the university for current information on the status of interviews and finding aids.
Additionally, as interviews are completed and approved, the Department of History is adding them to a site on the Internet.