The principle differences in the selected group pertain to the method and the effects of hiding. Cornelia Aaron recollected the fact that approximately 20 times her mother and her hid in a folding bed when Nazis would enter looking for Jews. The most psychologically traumatic occurrence for her, however, was when -- as a young girl -- her parents chose to hide in one location while she elected to go to a shelter for harboring children. The emotional currents of her memory of the last time seeing her parents, as they cried and she was led away from them never to see them again, was heart-wrenching and makes viewers wondering about the efficacy of hiding. This doubt as to the use of hiding (when there are really no other options) emerges more fully when one realizes that Frieda Aaron's cousins hid in the Soviet Union, only to be killed when the pact between Germany and the Soviet Union dissolved. The trauma the young woman endured after having lost her two favorite cousins was apparent on camera

In this respect, the futility of hiding (for most people) underscores the lack of options and the desolation that the Nazi's extermination wrought. The inadequacies of hiding merely reinforce how bleak a situation those in hiding actually were. It was difficult not to watch these testimonies without being emotionally affected by them. Seeing the women cry while recounting these various episodes of their childhood hammered...

It also made the stories of the holocaust real -- as opposed to seemingly distant historical memories.
Zelizer's text directly relates to the testimonies I watched for this paper because it discusses how memories can be colored, distorted and altered over the ravages of time. In particular, his text applies to some of the recollections of Frieda Aaron. It was clear from hearing her speak about her father that she was fond of him. Yet as she did so, the woman herself was aware of the fact that she was unabashedly romanticizing him. She even mentioned that she did not want to "deify" him by remembering him as affectionately as she did. The effect of time in making her memories of her father fonder was clear. Zelizer alludes to this effect often, and claims that one of the benefits of photographs that can form a collective memory of an event such as the Holocaust is that "Unlike personal memory, whose authority fades with time" (Zelizer 3) a collective memory based on external representations lasts longer. The effect of time on personal memories was clearly seen in these testimonies.

Works Cited

Zelizer, Barbie. Remembering to Forget: Holocaust Memory Through the Camera's Eye. University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Frank, Anne. Anne Frank: the Diary of a Young Girl, The Definitive Edition (NY: Bantam, 1997).