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Elizabeth Kalhammer's Eyewitness Account

Mrs. Elizabeth Kalhammer is considered a credible eyewitness to Adolf Hitler's life despite her advanced age. While older adults may forget some details over time, she was able to comprehensively explain major points about Hitler and having personally experienced the significant events would make them difficult to forget. The interviewer, Antonia Yamin, followed best practices for an oral history interview by asking relevant, specific questions and building on the interviewee's answers to explore the topic in more depth and gather a complex testimony in a clear, understandable way. The interviewer's strategies allowed the interviewee to cohesively explain the history.

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Gela Nicole Dalina
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135 views2 pages

Elizabeth Kalhammer's Eyewitness Account

Mrs. Elizabeth Kalhammer is considered a credible eyewitness to Adolf Hitler's life despite her advanced age. While older adults may forget some details over time, she was able to comprehensively explain major points about Hitler and having personally experienced the significant events would make them difficult to forget. The interviewer, Antonia Yamin, followed best practices for an oral history interview by asking relevant, specific questions and building on the interviewee's answers to explore the topic in more depth and gather a complex testimony in a clear, understandable way. The interviewer's strategies allowed the interviewee to cohesively explain the history.

Uploaded by

Gela Nicole Dalina
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

READHIS | ASSIGNMENT NO.

4
ASSESSING THE TESTIMONY OF ELIZABETH KALHAMMER AS AN
EYEWITNESS TO THE LIFE OF ADOLF HITLER

Christine Durango. Section. CDP1

1. In your opinion, is Mrs Elizabeth Kalhammer a credible eyewitness despite her very
advanced age? Explain why you think so.

Mrs. Kahlammer was able to comprehensively explain the life of Adolf Hitler.
Surprisingly, despite her age, she elaborated the major points of the story. Her memory
helped the viewers’ envision during those times and became a living archive up to this
day. It is not impossible that she may forgotten some parts of the story, but the most
important portion of the testimony was stated. Considering that she have personally
experienced it and it was the significant event during her time, the testimony is indeed
credible.
However, according to studies, when giving testimony, adults is not as reliable as
younger adults. Mainly because of their age, they might forget some of the events that
happened especially from a situation that happened a long time ago. But in my opinion,
an event that you personally experienced and had a big impact on your life is impossible
to be forgotten. Therefore, I believe that Mrs. Kalhammer’s story is legit and credible.

2. How would you assess the type of questions and statements that the interviewer made at
the course of the documentary? In your opinion, did she follow the “rules” of a good
historical interview / oral history?

The questions of Antonia Yamin— the interviewer are correct and relevant. She
was able to ask and identify the research topic which was the life of the subject as a
servant in Hitler’s house during holocaust. Explored the personal experiences of the
subject and made commentaries about her observations upon the feelings of the subject
regarding her actions and reactions towards the question or statement. The interviewer
was also able to formulate specific questions and gathered complex answers and used it
to create follow-up questions to narrow down the answer of the interviewee.
Yamin have impressively explored all her specific questions as the interviewee
have flawlessly understood her point. Because of clarity, both subjects have built an
excellent communication which resulted to an understandable explanation of history.
Without the strategy of the interviewer, the testimony will not be elaborated cohesively.
Overall, this historical interview is effective and expressively explain all the aspects of an
oral history interview.

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