Jewish Survivor Testimony

The Holocaust was arguably one of the darkest, if not the darkest
days in Jewish history. During World War II, millions of Jews were
tortured and massacred in war zones and German concentration
camps, some of which were specially made for containing and killing
huge numbers of Jews captured as prisoners of war. In the video
material associated with this course, Holocaust survivor Reva Kibort
was interviewed by Mary Koppel regarding her experiences as a
child, a few years prior to the start of the World War II and
consequently, the Holocaust, a short moment for a few years after
the Holocaust, and today.
Reva Kibort is a female Jew, one of the many fortunate Jews who
were able to survive the horrific events during the holocaust. She
was a child when the Holocaust started. Mary Koppel did a good job
by making the setting of the scene formal, considering the fact that
the questions that would be asked by the respondent, which in this
case was Reva Kibort, would be serious, heavy, depressing even.
Another positive point about the interview and testimony was that
the questions were organized, systematic, and highly specific.
It was organized and systematic because the interviewer asked
Reva Kibort to start from the beginning when she was born as a
child in her hometown, in Warsaw, Poland; how her childhood life
looked like; what she and her parents did during those times, and
lots of other highly specific and graphic (in a positive way) events.
The interview was then led on to the events that happened during

the holocaust. It was a real testimony because all the stories, the
hardships, the challenges, and the near to death experiences, were
vividly described. This can be seen as a perfect challenge for the
interviewer because Reva Kibort appeared to be emotional at some
points during the interview, but the interviewer still managed to
extract more than two hours worth of testimonial information from
her respondent. On Reva Kiborts end, she also did a good job
because she courageously told her first-hand experience of the
events that transpired during the Holocaust even though she clearly
did not want to revisit her old and dark past in which he lost some of
the most important members of her family.
The interview and testimony was specific mainly because of the
fact that the choice of questionswhich presumably was written by
the interviewer herself, were factual and straight to the point. Most
interviewers typically try very hard not to offend or hurt the feelings
of their respondents whenever they write and ask the questions to
the point that they fail to meet the goals and objectives of their
interview. This clearly was not the case with Reva Kiborts testimony
because she was able to let everything out. One of the highlights of
the testimony was when Reva Kibort was telling the story of how she
and her family was sent to a slave labor camp; how the guards
separated women, children, and men, and asked them to do heavy
labor (i.e. work in the quarry, farm, gardens, and etc.), and how they
did anything just in order to survive. The later parts of the story
went on with many stories of Reva Kiborts experiences during the

Holocaust.
All in all, what made the interview stand out were Mary Koppels
professionalism,

tact,

and

sensitivity

in

handling

the

entire

testimony and interview. If not for her skills, the testimonial and
interview would have gone the other way around.