A Canadian Family Talks About Oma’s Life in Nazi Germany: Three-Generational Interviews and Communicative Memory

Abstract

This article describes, explains, and applies the three-generational interview method and the concept of communicative memory to a case study about a Canadian family. Members of three generations were interviewed, both individually and in a group setting, about the Oma’s (grandmother) experiences in Nazi Germany. Freund argues that group interviews like this one allow oral historians to gain important insights about the processes through which families construct and negotiate their memories. Communicative memory, Freund demonstrates, helps us understand how family memories emerge from communicative interaction. This approach also allows oral historians to better account for the ways that they may influence the creation of family memories.