Tag: Oral History

Liaison Specialist (and NYU APH alum) Jason Steinhauer of the Library of Congress Veterans History Project will present a lecture and discussion on the contributions, impact and legacy of American Jewish service during World War II on Monday, May 3, at noon in the West Dining Room of the Library’s James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave., S.E., Washington, D.C.

Cosponsored by VHP and the Hebrew Language Table, the program is part of the Library’s plans to commemorate Jewish American Heritage Month.

“More than 550,000 American Jewish soldiers served during World War II, and they received 52,000 decorations for gallantry,” said Bob Patrick, VHP director. “Their contribution to Allied victory was enormous; their military service, transformative for an entire generation.”

The lecture and discussion draws on collections from the Veterans History Project and Steinhauer’s work as assistant curator on the award-winning exhibition Ours to Fight For: American Jews in the Second World War at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City. The exhibition received the American Association of Museums’ Grand Prize for Excellence in Exhibitions for 2003.

The Veterans History Project houses the remarkable stories of hundreds of American Jewish war veterans. First-person accounts of veterans of the Second World War are spotlighted in one of the project’s Experiencing War web features, titled “Jewish Veterans of World War II.”

The Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution, is the world’s preeminent reservoir of knowledge, providing unparalleled collections and integrated resources to Congress and the American people. Many of the Library’s rich resources and treasures may also be accessed through the Library’s website, and via interactive exhibitions on a personalized website at myLOC.gov.

Congress created The Veterans History Project in 2000 as a national documentation program of the American Folklife Center to record, preserve and make accessible the first-hand remembrances of American wartime veterans from World War I through the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war. More than 68,000 individual stories comprise the collection to date. The project relies on volunteers to record veterans’ remembrances using guidelines accessible at www.loc.gov/vets/. Volunteer interviewers may request information at vohp@loc.gov or the toll-free message line at (888) 371-5848. Subscribe to the VHP RSS to receive periodic updates of VHP news.