|
|
Oral History, fairness and the representation of the persons concerned
| History conceivably is largely based on numbers and dates. Yet, the individual perspective of those concerned is hardly neither represented nor mentioned- in doing so, fairness and adequacy become a great problem especially when dealing with contemporary history. Many, who have experienced the phenomena investigated, are still alive or lived long enough to witness an ever growing interest in a critical period of their lives. Yet, can history be just without a representation of that perspective? Isn’t the objective of history the exploration and illumination of all things past with all aspects related?
Oral history can achieve exactly that. In conducting interviews, the lives of the persons who experienced the period in question, their personal perspective, are given a platform and incorporated into greater correlations. The individual isn’t lost but a means of exploring all aspects of history and the effects of greater events onto the lives of those persons. The demand for fairness is met more easily as a matter of that fact. Fairness is when the individual and their lives are represented in the greater picture, their individual experiences and hardships are mentioned and represented adequately.
A fitting example for this is handling the individual stories of survivors and victims of the Shoah. Much information on them can be gained by means of oral history, either by interviewing them or their contemporaries. The individuals’ perspective and experiences with the atrocities committed receive the attention they deserve and the victims aren’t anonymized in the greater correlations of history. Their individual lives and hardships are represented to an extent that is at least fairly adequate.
In my personal research, I focused on Aryanization and Restitution in a region of Bavaria and am trying to incorporate that principle of fairness into my work.
|
|
|
|
