The Hear Our Voices project harnesses the power of oral history to educate about the Holocaust and contemporary antisemitism. Survivors and members of the second generation speak powerfully about the history of the Holocaust while international scholars lend their voices to provide historical context and analysis. Thousands of students and teachers in Canada and around the world have turned to the project as a trusted resource to better understand the history of the Shoah and antisemitism today.
Professor Deidre Butler is now working on the next stage of the Hear Our Voices Project. We are now reworking the footage that was filmed for the online project and expanding on it to develop new educational film documentaries that begin with individual stories to educate about the Holocaust and antisemitism.
Work on the first film is now entering the final stages of pre-production. This documentary will be centred on Professor Jan Grabowski, who is both a Holocaust historian and member of the Second Generation. The film examines his family’s survival in Poland under Aryan papers, how Jan discovered his family’s hidden history, and how his research led to his prosecution and persecution by the Polish Government.
To support this film, Professor Butler completed additional filming in Poland and Germany in February 2024. Our work there included additional interviews with Professor Grabowski as he explained the current efforts to rewrite Holocaust history at Treblinka, as well as an interview with Professor Jan T. Gross, a Polish-American historian born in Warsaw, whose foundational research on Polish-Jewish relations during and after the Shoah has significantly shaped the field. We also interviewed Dr. Elzbieta Janicka, a scholar at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, who provided insight on state-driven Holocaust distortion and double genocide narratives in Poland.
During this time, we also had the opportunity to begin filming in Budapest for the second documentary film which will focus on Tom Deri, a child survivor of the Holocaust. Professor Butler and Professor Walker traveled to Budapest to further research and document Mr. Deri’s experiences. Professor Butler interviewed Professor Ildiko Barna of Eotvos Lorand University, whose research focuses on Holocaust displacement and post-war identity, and Dr Andras Zima, Director of the Holocaust Memorial Centre in Budapest. These interviews were key to explaining Mr. Deri’s experiences and survival in Budapest as well as the distinct history of the Holocaust in Hungary, and how the Holocaust is remembered in Hungary today.
Moving forward, we are wrapping up work on the Jan Grabowski film and planning the development of new modules for the HOV Pressbook that will draw on the research gathered throughout this phase. As part of this final stage, we are filming the final scholarly interviews. This will include filming Professor Samuel Kassow, one of the leading historians of East European Jewry, for his expertise on pre-war Jewish life, as well as his own insight as a member of the Second Generation and Professor Piotr Forecki from Adam Mickiewicz University, whose research examines contemporary antisemitism and Holocaust distortion in Poland. These interviews will support the Jan Grabowski film and will also serve as resources for creating new educational content for the original HOV pressbook.
This phase of Hear Our Voices is an exciting one as the project is dynamically growing in both scope and reach. By filming on location and conducting interviews with leading scholars and survivors, we are adding new layers of historical insight and educational value. Thanks to the ongoing support of our community, this work continues to move forward, and we are excited to share the next developments as they take shape.
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