LESLIE KATZ
Bulletin Staff
Lani Silver, co-founder and executive director of San Francisco's landmark Holocaust Oral History Project, has left the organization to complete the doctoral studies she interrupted 21 years ago.
"It's time to finish that," she says. "It's just a moment where I can do that."
Silver, 48, will pursue her studies through the University of Chicago, where she began doctoral work in political science more than two decades ago. She has one quarter of coursework left and then plans a dissertation on the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, a unit of Japanese-American soldiers she believes were among the first to liberate Dachau and its subcamps.
There has been some debate over whether or not the unit reached the main concentration camp or merely neared it; based on photos and accounts from former Dachau prisoners, Silver firmly believes the battalion did encounter the site.
But more than the 522nd's path, her dissertation will focus on the larger question of how history as we know it originates.
"I'm trying to understand why no one knew this story for 50 years," she says.
"What are the circumstances by which a fact is forgotten and not included in history? And under what conditions can the historical record be changed?"
The importance of historical record has driven Silver for the past decade and a half.
In 1981, while teaching political science at San Francisco State University, Silver attended an international conference of Holocaust survivors in Jerusalem. The former National Public Radio producer interviewed some 50 survivors there and was shocked to learn few had told their stories before.
Determined that the survivors' stories be preserved, Silver founded the oral history project together with Ruth Linden, a sociology professor who is currently associate dean at John F. Kennedy University in Orinda.
To date, the project has recorded some 1,700 oral histories with 1,400 survivors; these are primarily in English, though a small number are in Russian. The archives -- among the largest of their kind in the world -- are open to the public and disseminated to news organizations, filmmakers, educational institutions and historians around the world.
The project also undertakes various educational efforts. In the last several years, for example, it has helped bring to public attention the story of diplomat Chiune Sugihara, who helped save Lithuanian Jews during World War II and became known as the "Japanese Schindler."
"I'm very proud of our Sugihara work," Silver says. "I think the name Chiune Sugihara is a lot more well-known," as a result.
Looking back on her years with the oral history project, Silver cites as a highlight the opportunity to become acquainted with survivors. She characterizes them as a strong and resilient group from which she has learned a great deal, namely perspective.
"My life is just so much richer for knowing them," she says. "It's a beautiful project. It's been a great privilege to work on it."
The oral history project is currently searching for a new director. Silver is confident that with the help of its many volunteers, the organization will continue functioning without her.
"I think the project will be fine," she says. "There are wonderful people affiliated with it."
Nonetheless, those who have worked with Silver say her absence will be felt.
"Her dedication to the project and making it known nationally and even internationally was remarkable," says Dr. George Prozan, president of the project's board of directors. "Certainly, it will be missed."
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