After more than 30 years, the complete set of more than 150 firsthand accounts of Orange County residents who experienced the Holocaust is now available and searchable online.

The Orange County Holocaust Oral History Project oral histories, originally recorded in the mid-1990s, are filled with stories of community, betrayal, trauma, and survival.

Thanks to philanthropic support from the community and in collaboration with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), UC Irvine Libraries have made the complete collection available to the public with enhanced records. 

More About the Collection

Between 1992 and 1995, the Orange County Chapter of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recorded the oral histories in the collection.  Most of the interviewees are Jewish survivors whose experiences included forced and voluntary emigration, death camps, forced labor, hiding, and resistance. The interviews also include five “liberators” (American military who witnessed the concentration camps following liberation) and three “rescuers” (who risked their lives to protect Jews during the war). The project was led by Holocaust educator and survivor Jack Pariser, and the collection was donated to UC Irvine Libraries Special Collections and Archives in 1995.

Due to the fragility of the 30-year-old VHS videotapes and the increasing obsolescence of VHS equipment, the Orange County Holocaust Oral History collection interviews were inaccessible for an extended period. To preserve these stories for the future, UC Irvine Libraries raised funds to digitize this collection of oral histories unique to the Orange County region. 

Now Available Online

As part of this project, UC Irvine Libraries collaborated with the USHMM, which had digitized its own set of ADL interviews. This collaboration ensured the full set of interviews was digitized, including several interviews in the UC Irvine collection that are not part of the USHMM’s collection. 

The digitized interviews are now available to the public through UC Irvine Libraries and the USHMM. Full-text transcriptions and detailed summaries were also created by the Libraries as a permanent part of the Libraries’ collection, which is now fully searchable by keyword.

View the Libraries’ online catalog records for a complete list of interviews. Each record includes links to the oral history recordings in Calisphere and on the USHMM webpage.

Additional information is available in the project's Collection Guide. 

Donor Support

The Libraries’ Orange County Holocaust Oral History Project was funded through donations from individuals and support from the Samueli Foundation and the Orange County Chapter of the Antidefamation League.
In recognition, each catalog record includes a digital bookplate to acknowledge the support of donors who helped preserve these Holocaust survivor experiences for future generations.