New Haven Oral History Project

“We all said do not forget us…”

Shifre Zamkov on the New Haven Holocaust Memorial

The New Haven Holocaust Memorial, built in 1977, was the first Holocaust memorial built on public land in North America. Shifre Zamkov, a Holocaust survivor and New Haven resident, describes how the imperative of building a monument started with her experience in the concentration camps.

Memory & Legacy, an exhibit about the Memorial based on interviews conducted by NHOHP students, will be on view April 15-June 30 at the Jewish Community Center of Greater New Haven, 360 Amity Road in Woodbridge.

Click here to read an article in the Yale Daily News about the exhibit and the New Haven Oral History Project’s work to document the history of the Memorial.

Read the full transcript of this interview...

interview by Mike Brown, Nov. 22, 2005. Photograph by David Ottenstein.

What's going on at the NHOHP?

Announcements

Visit the "Life in the Model City" Exhibit Online

www.modelcity.org

In New Haven, Connecticut, from 1954 to 1969, some 25,000 people were relocated from their homes. Neighborhoods were transformed. One was totally eliminated. New Haven, residents were told, would be the “model city.” What was life like in the midst of such massive changes? How did neighborhoods and families react?

A major interviewing project and subsequent exhibition at the New Haven Colony Historical Society used oral history interviews with community residents to understand the lingering effects of urban renewal. This project was made possible by a grant from the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.

What is the New Haven Oral History Project?

About

Preservation, Education, Community Building

The New Haven Oral History Project documents the oral history of New Haven, Connecticut. The NHOHP pursues three interrelated goals: preservation, education, and community building. Preservation involves building the New Haven Oral History Collection, a publicly-accessible archive of oral history about the city at the Yale University Library. We educate by teaching students to conduct the interviews, and bringing interviews into the classroom. Community building means putting our history to work in in public forums in our community, creating a common understanding of the past as the basis for a shared vision of the future.