Gathering the Voices Association

The project commenced in 2012, and a key outcome of the project is to educate current and future generations about the resilience of these survivors. Volunteers from the Jewish community collaborate with staff and undergraduate students in Glasgow Caledonian University in developing innovative approaches to engage with school children. These multimedia approaches are essential, as future generations will be unable to interact in person with Holocaust survivors. By students being active participants in the project, they learn more about the Holocaust and recognize the relevance of these testimonies in today’s society. Although some of the survivors have been interviewed about their journeys in fleeing from the Nazi atrocities, for all of the interviewees, this is the first time that they have been asked about their lives once they arrived in the United Kingdom. The interviews have also focused on citizenship and integration into society.

The aim of the Gathering the Voices project is to gather testimonies from Holocaust survivors who have made their home in Scotland and to make these testimonies available on the World Wide Web.

The Gathering the Voices project is a registered charity.

The members of the Association have collected and made available online oral and video testimony from men and women who sought and found sanctuary in Scotland to escape the racism of Nazi–dominated Europe. A major strand of the project was to allow the interviewees to describe key events throughout their whole lives, so they are seen as individuals not just victims. Recently, the association started to interview some of the second generation to ensure their families’ experiences are not forgotten. As well as testimony the archive shows letters, photographs and other memorabilia.

All the testimonies are available electronically.

Angela Shapiro, Brian McDonald, Aidan Johnston. "Gathering the Voices: disseminating the message of the Holocaust for the digital generation by applying an interdisciplinary approach", Social Sciences, Aug 2014 (3): 499-513 (http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/socsci3030499).