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ABSTRACT
This article traces the evolution of Lawrence L. Langer’s career beginning as a professor of American literature followed by his transition to Holocaust literature, and eventual recognition and stature as one of the world’s foremost scholars of Holocaust literature and Holocaust video testimonies. His expertise in Holocaust art, media, and history is included. The parallel history of the founding, growth, and development of Yale University’s Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies is examined. The resulting symbiosis between Langer and the Fortunoff Video Archive, as well as the influences and contributions of both to the field of Holocaust studies is discussed.
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes on contributor
Joanne Weiner Rudof retired as the archivist at the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University in September 2017 after thirty-three years. She has written numerous articles, book chapters, and conference papers on Holocaust testimonies and been editor and producer of documentaries including Voices from the Yugoslav Holocaust, Remembering Częstochowa, Parallel Paths, and the award winning national PBS broadcast, Witness: Voices from the Holocaust for which she was co-editor of the book with the same title. She has coordinated over twenty Holocaust testimony projects in North and South America, Europe, and Israel and advised others in initiating video testimony projects documenting genocide, oppression, and human rights violations.
Rudof raised the funds for and coordinated the digital conversion of over 10,000 hours of video testimonies recorded on obsolete formats. She was a 2019 recipient of an award from Lessons & Legacies and the Holocaust Education Foundation in recognition of her ‘Distinguished Contribution to Holocaust Education. ’ She edited the first three video testimonies recorded by the Holocaust Survivors Film Project for a public presentation on May 2, 2019 marking forty years since they had been recorded. She is the inaugural Laurel Vlock Filmmaker-in-Residence Fellow at the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University for 2019–2020.
Notes
1 ‘Lawrence L. Langer,’ Jewish Virtual Library, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/langer-lawrence-l.
2 I was project manager of the Revson Foundation grant from 1984 through 1990, then archivist from 1990 until my retirement in 2017.
3 Lawrence L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4489), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library, part 1 of 2, 00:01:50–00:01:52,
4 Ibid., part 1 of 2, 00:10:31–00:10:45.
5 Elie Wiesel, Night, trans. Stella Rodway (New York: Hill and Wang, 1960).
6 André Schwarz-Bart, The Last of the Just, trans. Stephen Becker (New York: Atheneum Publishers, 1960).
7 Lawrence L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4489), part 1 of 2, 00:11:29–00:12:31.
8 Ibid., part 1 of 2, 00:17:02–00:17:47.
9 Ibid., part 1 of 1, 00:14:36–00:19:08.
10 Ibid., part 1 of 2, 00:19:08–00:24:15.
11 Ibid., part 1 of 2, 00:24:15–00:24:44.
12 Ibid., part 1 of 2, 00:25:05–00:25:30.
13 Ibid., part 1 of 2, 00:25:30–00:27:00.
14 Langer discusses his Auschwitz visit and the Wolff trial in less detail in the preface to Lawrence L. Langer, The Holocaust and the Literary Imagination (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1975), p. xi.
15 Lawrence L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4489), part 1 of 2, 00:32:25–00:33:31.
16 Ibid., part 1 of 2, 00:36:00–00:37:62.
17 Charlotte Delbo, None of Us Will Return, trans. John Githins (New York: Grove Press, 1968).
18 Jacov Lind, Soul of Wood & Other Stories, trans. Ralph Manheim (New York: Grove Press, 1964).
19 Ladislav Fuks, Mr. Theodore Mundstock, trans. Iris Urwin (London: Cape, 1969).
20 Schwarz-Bart, The Last of the Just.
21 Wiesel, Night.
22 Pierre Gascar, “The Season of the Dead,” from Beasts and Men, trans. Jean Stewart (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1956).
23 Ilse Aichinger, Herod’s Children, trans. Cornelia Schaeffer (New York: Atheneum, 1963).
24 Victor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy, part one trans. Ilse Lasch (New York: Pocket Books, 1963).
25 Lawrence L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4489), part 1 of 2, 00:41:21–00:41:35.
26 Lawrence L. Langer, Admitting the Holocaust: Collected Essays (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 181.
27 Lawrence L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4489), part 1 of 2, 00:40:21–00:41:03.
28 Langer, The Holocaust and the Literary Imagination.
29 Lawrence L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4489), part 1 of 2, 00:48:50–00:52:00.
30 Ibid., part 1 of 2, 00:51:54–00:53:22.
31 Langer, The Holocaust and the Literary Imagination, p. xii.
32 Lawrence L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4489), part 1 of 2, 00:53:22–00:53:35.
33 Lawrence L. Langer, The Age of Atrocity: Death in Modern Literature (Boston: Beacon Press, 1978).
34 Lawrence L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4489), part 1 of 2, 00:53:50–00:54:33.
35 Ibid., part 1 of 2, 00:56:16–00:57:07.
36 Charlotte Delbo, Auschwitz and After, trans. Rosette C. Lamont (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2004).
37 Lawrence L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4489), part 2 of 2, 00:37:37–00:38:11.
38 Christopher R. Browning, Remembering Survival: Inside a Nazi Slave Labor Camp (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2010), p. 35.
39 Ibid., p. 298.
40 Samuel D. Kassow, “Introduction,” in Samuel D. Kassow, (ed.), trans. and co-ed. David Suchoff, Peretz Opochinsky, In those Nightmarish Days: the Ghetto Reportage of Peretz Opoczynski and Josef Zelkowicz (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015), p. xiv.
41 C. Fred Alford, After the Holocaust: The Book of Job, Primo Levi, and the Path to Affliction (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), p. 72.
42 Lawrence L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4489), part 2 of 2, 00:00:02–00:00:10. See Terrence Des Pres, The Survivor: An Anatomy of Life in the Death Camps (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976).
43 W. G. Niederland, “The Survivor Syndrome: Further Observations and Dimensions,” Journal of the American Psychoanalytical Association, vol. 2 (1981): pp. 413–25.
44 Wolfgang Saxon, “Dr. William G. Niederlander, 88; Formulated ‘Survivor Syndrome,” New York Times, 5 August 1993, https://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/05/obituaries/dr-william-g-niederland-88-formulated-survivor-syndrome.html
45 Lawrence L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4489), part 2 of 2, 00:00:52–00:02:03.
46 Lawrence L. Langer, Versions of Survival: The Holocaust and the Human Spirit (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1982).
47 Paraphrased from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4672210-versions-of-survival.
48 See http://fortunoff.library.yale.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/interviewer.training_redacted.pdf, p. 1 for original syllabus.
49 Primo Levi, The Drowned and the Saved, trans. Raymond Rosenthal (New York: Vintage International, 1989).
50 See http://fortunoff.library.yale.edu/wpcontent/uploads/2018/10/interviewer.training_redacted.pdf, pp. 2–4, 7–11.
51 Some of the previous text was excerpted from Joanne Weiner Rudof, “A Yale University and New Haven Community Project: From Local to Global,” http://fortunoff.library.yale.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/local_to_global.
52 Lawrence L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4489), part 2 of 2, 00:04:08–00:04:28.
53 Ibid., part 2 of 2, 00:04:45–00:05:32.
54 Ibid., part 2 of 2, 00:06:01–00:06:45.
55 Ibid., part 2 of 2, 06:45:23–00:07:16.
56 Lawrence L. Langer, Holocaust Testimonies: The Ruins of Memory (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1991), pp. xi–xii.
57 Lawrence L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4489), part 2 of 2, 00:08:07–00:09:10.
58 Ibid., part 2 of 2, 00:10:54–00:11:14.
59 Chaim E. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-756), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
60 Dori L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-46), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
61 Dori L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-593), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
62 Klara and Dori L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-777), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
63 Lawrence L. Langer, Holocaust Testimonies: The Ruins of Memory (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991).
64 Robert N. Kraft, Memory Perceived: Recalling the Holocaust (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002).
65 Dori L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT- 4492), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
66 Langer, Holocaust Testimonies, pp. 63–4.
67 Jan K. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-1107), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
68 Czeław M. Holocaust testimony (HVT-1152), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.
69 David P. Boder, I Did Not Interview the Dead (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1949).
70 Orbis, Yale University Library Catalog, notes field of bibliographic record.
72 Lawrence L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT 4489), part 2 of 2, 00:14:26–00:15:16.
73 Ibid., part 2 of 2, 00:16:05–00:16:28.
74 Ibid., part 2 of 2, 00:16:53–00:17:37.
75 Ibid., part 2 of 2, 00:22:02–00:22:10.
76 Ibid., part 2 of 2, 00:23:59–00:24:16.
77 See http://fortunoff.library.yale.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/interviewer.training_redacted.pdf, pp. 7–8.
78 Lawrence L. Langer, (ed.), Art from the Ashes: A Holocaust Anthology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).
79 Lawrence L. Langer, Admitting the Holocaust: Collected Essays (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).
80 Lawrence L. Langer, Preempting the Holocaust (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998).
81 Lawrence L. Langer, Using and Abusing the Holocaust (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2006).
82 Lawrence L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT 4489), part 2 of 2, 00:35:55–00:36:10.
83 Lawrence L. Langer, In a Different Light: The Book of Genesis in the Art of Samuel Bak (Boston: Pucker Art Publications, 2001; distributed by University of Washington Press).
84 “Distinguished Achievement Award,” Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University, https://www.hef.northwestern.edu/lessons-and-legacies-conference/distinguished-achievement-award/.
85 Lawrence L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT 4489), part 2 of 2, 00:35:40–00:35:55.
86 Ibid., part 2 of 2, 00:42:19–00:42:44.
87 Geoffrey H. Hartman, The Longest Shadow: In the Aftermath of the Holocaust (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1996), pp. 2–3.
88 Lawrence L. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-4489), part 2 of 2, 00:41:57–00:42:19.
89 Christopher R. Browning, Collected Memories: Holocaust History and Postwar Testimony (Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2003), p. 38.
90 Fred O., Edited Testimony, (HVT-8075), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, tape 2, 00:10:48–00:11:43.
91 Sally H. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3), Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University, tape 2, 00:15:55–00:16:10.
92 Langer, Holocaust Testimonies, p. xi.