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Citation: 

Ellis, Carolyn, and Jerry Rawicki. "Collaborative Witnessing and Sharing Authority in Conversations with Holocaust Survivors." In Beyond Testimony and Trauma: Oral History in the Aftermath of Mass Violence, edited by Steven High, 170-91. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2015.

Abstract/Summary: 

Carolyn Ellis, a researcher, and Jerry Rawicki, a Holocaust survivor, unpack their “collaborative witnessing” process of “sharing authority in oral history” as an alternative to the traditional “bearing witness” method of giving one’s testimony as a victim of mass violence. By using a “co-constructed narrative approach,” the co-authors “mutually analyze” Rawicki’s remembrances of what became the short story “Get the Jew” by comparing and contrasting the initial transcribed interview with the final story. Throughout the chapter the two reflect on the opportunities and difficulties that occur in this process, particularly the “complexities of…sharing authority in collaborative relationships,” and state that no matter how difficult the process might be, it should still be done as a compassionate collaboration.

Source/Credit: 
Shannon Leggett