A powerful new audio installation presents for the first time selections from the audio archive of Shoah, the landmark documentary by French filmmaker Claude Lanzmann.
A powerful new audio installation presents for the first time selections from the audio archive of Shoah, the landmark documentary by French filmmaker Claude Lanzmann.
A powerful new audio installation presents for the first time selections from the audio archive of Shoah (1985), the landmark documentary by French journalist and filmmaker Claude Lanzmann (1925–2018). Together with the film, this archive was added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2023. The larger collection comprises 152 previously unknown magnetic cassettes, documenting conversations Lanzmann and his assistants held throughout the 1970s and early 1980s during the years-long research process that preceded filming.
The recordings capture preliminary interviews with victims, perpetrators, and bystanders of the Holocaust, offering rare insight into the genesis of Shoah while also preserving a remarkable archive of non-standardized eyewitness testimony. Presented on the centenary of Lanzmann’s birth, the installation underscores the enduring power of memory, testimony, and the preservation of voices from history.
The Recordings: Voices from the Shoah Tapes is an exhibition of the Jewish Museum Berlin (JMB), curated by Tamar Lewinsky, and coordinated for The New York Historical by Valerie Paley, senior vice president and Sue Ann Weinberg director of the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library, and curatorial scholar Keren Ben-Horin.
Support for The Recordings: Voices from the Shoah Tapes at The New York Historical is provided by the David Berg Foundation, Edythe Gladstein, Susan and Roger Hertog, Leah and Michael Weisberg, Leslie Himmel and Alan Shuch, and Barbara and David Zalaznick.
Support for Claude Lanzmann: The Recordings is provided by the German Foreign Office and the Alfred Landecker Foundation. The JMB is subsidized by the Minister of State for Culture and the Media.
Exhibitions at The New York Historical are made possible by Dr. Agnes Hsu-Tang and Oscar Tang, the Saunders Trust for American History, the Evelyn & Seymour Neuman Fund, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. WNET is the media sponsor.
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![John Dickinson, A Declaration [. . .] Setting Forth the Causes and Necessity [of] Taking up Arms (Philadelphia: Bradford, 1775). Photograph by Vincent Dilio. Courtesy of David M. Rubenstein.](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fd17xep5pb0e8k3.cloudfront.net%2FaJOU2KTt2nPbZ7gB_15-04092025_a_declaration_by_representatives_of_united_colonies_philadelphia_1775_C_001b.jpg%3Fauto%3Dformat%252Ccompress%26rect%3D291%252C1814%252C3548%252C1602%26w%3D2000%26h%3D903%26q%3D80&w=1200&q=75)
![John Dickinson, A Declaration [. . .] Setting Forth the Causes and Necessity [of] Taking up Arms (Philadelphia: Bradford, 1775). Photograph by Vincent Dilio. Courtesy of David M. Rubenstein.](https://d17xep5pb0e8k3.cloudfront.net/aJOU2KTt2nPbZ7gB_15-04092025_a_declaration_by_representatives_of_united_colonies_philadelphia_1775_C_001b.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&rect=291%2C1814%2C3548%2C1602&w=2000&h=903&q=80)
