Transcription Reflections:

by Jeremy Garsha, March 2003

[Jeremy wrote this short text after interviewing UCSB studnets, but before working with Carpinteria High School students]

The outstanding beauty of working with oral testimony has to be the passion that is exemplified only by hearing the survivors’ voice. Thousands of beautifully edited narratives will never compare to the raw deal. Sadly, I was only able to briefly taste this, as I found it too difficult to jump into the projects I was handed midstream. Being able to place everything in some kind of context is the greatest difficulty during the beginning of a transcription. For this reason, if the interviewer does not transcribe their own work, it will never be done. Obviously it is impossible for one student to work on the whole project from start to finish, but it is equally impossible to pass this burden on. As the project is taken over by fellow and future students, we must provide some sort of spring board. The projects need to close not with an ending, but rather a new beginning. Only in this way can we pass on joys and opportunities, and make our overall vision a living reality.


prepared for web 6/11/03
part of the UCSB Holocaust Oral History Project website (homepage)