Douglas Morris Collection

This collection consists primarily of interviews conducted by Douglas Morris between 1975 and 1977. The interviewees were German and Swiss Jews and persons of Jewish descent who survived World War II and were living in Germany or Switzerland at the time of the interview.

The first set of 33 interviews (Series I) focused on the individuals' lives in Germany, and the experience of being Jewish or of Jewish descent in Germany. Topics included education, World War I, the Weimar Republic, the rise of Nazism, World War II, concentration camps, emigration, and the choice to remain in or return to Germany. The German interviews formed the basis of Morris’s undergraduate honors thesis at Wesleyan University. Morris also conducted a second set (Series II) of 43 interviews in 1976-1977 with Swiss Jews who survived World War II and were living in Switzerland at the time of the interview. Many of these interviews were recorded, but transcripts or translations were not prepared.

This collection includes audio cassette tapes and other interview materials such as transcripts, translations, narratives, notes, and index cards, as well as drafts and other materials related to Morris’s thesis. It also includes some printed research material for his Swiss interviews.