Countywide : IRVINE : UCI to Get Tapes by Holocaust Survivors

Orange County scholars soon will be able to hear about the Holocaust in the words of its survivors and heroes.

Later this month, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith will donate to UC Irvine hundreds of hours of videotaped interviews with county residents who lived through the Holocaust.

Almost 90 people who were imprisoned in Nazi death camps during World War II, sheltered Jews in basements and homes or served in military units that liberated prisoners from internment camps have been interviewed.

The donation is part of the Anti-Defamation League’s Oral History Project, developed to record the experiences of local survivors, league spokeswoman Susan Molk said.

Officials will present the tapes at 9 a.m. Tuesday to begin a program of remembrance held at UCI called “Never Again: From Intolerance to Genocide.” The symposium will be held April 12 and 13 at the UCI Student Center.

Thomas Keneally, a UCI professor of English and comparative literature who wrote the novel “Schindler’s List,” is scheduled to give an address about “The Holocaust from a Gentile’s View” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Presentations Wednesday will include a history of genocide as well as a discussion about hate groups and hate crimes in Orange County.

The Oral History Project is an ongoing program conducted by the Anti-Defamation League in major cities across the country, Molk said. For information about the Oral History Project in Orange County, call the Anti-Defamation League in Santa Ana at (714) 973-4733. For information about the symposium, call UCI at (714) 856-5588.