Along The Seam

It’s been 20 years since 9/11 — a day that changed the world. For some people, it is a memory that marks the before and after and for others it is a memory constructed by stories. In this episode of The Memory Generation, we speak with Alice M. Greenwald who is the President and CEO of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum about how the stories of 9/11 are in a state of transition from memory to history. We also highlight the story of Holocaust survivor Miriam Tauber and her interviewer Nancy Fisher who were set to film Miriam's testimony on that Tuesday morning 20 years ago in New York City. This episode explores topics such as spiritual resistance and the incredible response following the horrific attacks of that day.

In his three years as an Uber driver, Juan Zambrano gave over 16,000 rides to more than 20,000 people. But, one passenger stood out the most — a Holocaust survivor named Morris Price. The short conversation between these two people left a lasting impact on Juan and inspired a dive into family history. This episode of The Memory Generation is all about connection and how we have no idea what type of impact our stories have on the strangers around us.

What happens when your family is exiled? When the land that is yours becomes not yours? And when the story your family has lived has for a century been denied?

In this episode of The Memory Generation, we are exploring the history of the Armenian Genocide with the stories of two Armenian-American men — filmmaker Dr. Michael Hagopian and renowned historian  Dr. Richard Hovannisian — each who have made invaluable contributions to the field of Armenian Genocide studies. Through Michael’s testimony and a conversation with Richard, we explore the identity of the diaspora community, the importance of recording personal histories, and the powerful feeling of returning home.

In 1915, German pacifist Armin T. Wegner was dispatched to Anatolia with the German Red Cross. As a member of the Sanitary Corps, Armin carried a stretcher instead of a gun and wore a Turkish Red Cross uniform. That’s what allowed him to witness the life and death of the Armenians who were imprisoned in refugee camps. During his time there, Armin photographed what he saw in effort to warn the world of the forced removal and killing of the Armenians. His efforts proved little result but the lessons of being a witness never left him and two decades later when the pre-genocidal actions were taken against the Jews in Germany, Armin wrote an open letter to Hitler imploring him to stop what he was doing. In this episode of The Memory Generation, Stephen Smith explores Armin's legacy as an unknown giant of history who teaches us that our work to reduce violence and suffering in our world is not always about success, but about being willing to try.

In 1947, Benjamin Ferencz, a 27-year-old Jewish American immigrant from Transylvania became the chief prosecutor of the largest murder trial in history. He convicted 22 members of the Einsatzgruppen, the Nazi task forces whose sole mission was to murder Jews. Ben uncovered the evidence of these war crimes and during their trial in Nuremberg, Germany used the word “genocide” for the first time ever in a court of  law. Now, at the age of 101, he continues to seek out truth and create a more ethical and less violent world. His mantra is law, not war. In this episode of The Memory Generation, we explore Ben’s legacy, the precedent set at the Nuremberg trials and speak with Jonathan Dotan, an expert in blockchain technologies (and one of the writers and producers of HBO’s Silicon Valley) about his mission to change the way that video and photographic evidence can be authenticated and preserved for a court of law. This episode is about truth-seeking and the use of technology in the pursuit of justice.

In 1945, cinema luminary Sidney Bernstein became one of the first people to witness the atrocities inflicted by the Nazis. He arrived to Bergen Belsen in April 1945 and began work on a documentary titled German Concentration Camps Factual Survey. Tape for the film was cut. The story arc was constructed. Maps for the film were drawn. Sidney even brought his friend filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock onto the project. But, the British government censored the film and the footage was hidden from the public for nearly half a century. In this episode, we explore Sidney’s story through the perspective of his daughter, Jane Wells, who is also a filmmaker and also meet Holocaust survivor Helen Colin (formerly Hela Goldstein) who is likely the first Holocaust survivor to ever give an audio-visual testimony.

Coming Soon: In 1994, Steven Spielberg founded USC Shoah Foundation with a goal to collect 50,000 testimonies of Holocaust survivors. That collection - now known as the Visual History Archive - has grown to include 55,000 interviews with survivors and witnesses of other genocides, from Armenia to Myanmar. In this new podcast, hosted by oral historian Stephen D. Smith and documentary storyteller Rachael Cerrotti, these testimonies will be explored, connections between strangers will be made, and conversations with scholars, academics, artists, journalists and family members will dig into what makes these testimonies unique and what makes them universal. The show is an exploration of living history and what it means to be the inheritors of memory.