Why do research?

Our authenticity as speakers resides in our specific family circumstances as children of survivors.  In most cases, we will start our presentations by telling our parents’ story.  Even though we will not be presenting ourselves as experts or scholars on any aspect of the Holocaust, it is still necessary to do research before any public speaking engagements.  Your research augments the particulars of your parents’ story.  You have no doubt received your information over the years—piecemeal, out of chronological order, with some episodes fleshed out with many details and others more vague and disjointed.  Remember, your parents didn’t have access to maps, calendars, or journals to keep track of their lives.  They were preoccupied with the demands of making it through each day.

For you, however, research is essential.  It may even fill in the blanks that you have always been curious about.  Additional information can provide you with new, more specific questions to ask your parents to elaborate on.  This is a benefit for you personally and can only enhance your presentations. Research can provide you with:

• Objective, accurate information about what was going on around your parents in their towns, ghettos, slave labor camps, etc.
• The big picture as a context into which you can place your parents’ experience.
• Concreteness of facts, dates, locations, chronology, etc.  These lend credibility to your presentation and can bring the audience into your narrative, ie, "On Sunday, December 7, 1941, as Americans were huddled around their radios, stunned by the events of Pearl Harbor, my mother was wedged, along with about 100 others, in a freezing boxcar on her way to Auschwitz."

The following types of material also render this time in history more accessible and more personal:  maps, diaries / journals, personal correspondence, family photos, artifacts [work papers, residence permits, DP documents, etc.] archival photos / films and primary documents.