Netivot students join survivor interview project

TORONTO — “Tales told from the heart reach the heart,” children’s book author Steve Sanfield tells us. So it promises to be for a select group of Grade 8 students at Netivot HaTorah Day School in Thornhill who have embarked on a very special project.

No field trips here. No shoebox dioramas to be built.

Beginning March 8, 19 Netivot students will interview local Holocaust survivors, and the sessions will be filmed. Working in pairs, the kids craft their own questions after careful study (and prepare for any eventuality that may arise), conduct the interviews, operate the equipment, and edit the final, 15-minute cuts.

It may sound like something director Steven Spielberg thought up, but it’s actually the brainchild of American educator Tova Fish-Rosenberg, who six years ago created “Names, Not Numbers,” an interactive, multimedia, intergenerational Holocaust oral history project that, as its website understates, “takes the teaching of the Holocaust and its lessons well beyond many previous efforts.”

To date, nearly 300 students in grades 8 and 12 in seven U.S. cities have successfully interviewed and videotaped 110 survivors and World War II veterans. The curriculum and project have received wide attention stateside, and Rosenberg has been awarded the prestigious Baumel Award for Excellence in Jewish Studies from Yeshiva University.

As at other schools, the kids at Netivot – the first Canadian school to be chosen for Names, Not Numbers – will sit face to face with those who lived through the history being taught.

They also learn which questions to ask, and how to ask them.

Which is where I come in.

Recently, I was flattered to be invited to Netivot to talk to the students involved about interviewing techniques, especially when it involves a topic as massive and potentially touchy as the Holocaust.

I was prepared to explain the difference between interviewing for historical or archival purposes, and what journalists often do, which is to try to exact maximum drama from a subject. But if I’ve learned anything through 30 years of talking to Holocaust survivors, including both of my parents, it’s this: pretty much anything they say is dramatic and worth preserving.

I stressed heavily the importance of being prepared with advance study of the pre-chosen subject’s birthplace and places of incarceration, and of fine-tuning questions in ways that yield fuller, more detailed answers. (Example: “How do you feel about Holocaust deniers?” versus “Should Holocaust deniers be prosecuted?”)

I also advised the students that while it’s important to exercise sensitivity, they should not be afraid to ask direct or difficult questions. By their very nature, survivors are tough.

Still, the kids rightly expressed concerns.

What if a survivor breaks down while being filmed? What if they ramble off-topic? What if they answer with just a “yes” or “no”?

One slight lad wondered, “What if I break down?”

In a role-playing session to round out our encounter, I played the survivor. The students had learned their lessons, for they listened well enough to pick out specifics of my answers, stray momentarily from their scripts, and request elaboration.

I was impressed enough to ask to sit in on their interviews.