Interview with Ernest James - July 13, 1990

This interview was an oral testimony taken on behalf of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I sought out this particular interview because of where this man served and what he saw. He was briefly at Dora-Mittelbau, a place I've become interested in since I discovered my great uncle was at the liberation of the camp.

I didn't get to learn much about the camp, since James was mostly kept away from the prisoners. He did speak about how Germans would deny knowledge of what went on in the camps, but James debunked that. As punishment, the townspeople were made to bury the dead.

The transcript was hard to read since whoever transcribed it left the "uh" in there. Sometimes there were multiple in a row, or a single word between them. In addition to that, the interviewer would sometimes guide James away from what he was talking about and back to a particular topic. This tactic is basically the reason I decided to make a review of the interview. 

I talked to two of my grandparents when they got older, trying to learn about their lives. I also chatted with my great-grandfather when he had dementia and would talk about me without being able to make the connection that I was the person he was talking about. When people are trying to tell you their memories, I believe that you should just let them tell their story. I understand this interview was for a specific reason, but this man might have jostled loose a memory that he never would've accessed at any other time. When I talked to my grandmother, I tried to guide her through a set of questions. At first, it was more factual, but when I let her expand on her memories and let her answers wander, I learned so much more. My great-grandfather was so much more comfortable when I just let him talk instead of trying to tell him who I was.

I know that's a bit of rambling, but men and women of this generation had such important stories to tell. It was frustrating to read Ernest James's story being cut down to the size it was. If it needed to be a certain length, cut it down later. Let the man talk. Let people tell their own stories.

Ernest James was part of the 238th Engineer Combat Battalion