August 31, 2005
Library of Congress contacts: Anneliesa Clump Behrend aclump@loc.gov;
Helen Dalrymple hdal@loc.gov
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS’S VETERANS HISTORY PROJECT PRESENTS
VETERANS DAY SPECIAL ON PUBLIC RADIO
“While the World Watched” Honors
Firsthand Accounts of the End of WWII
[stations carrying this program (PDF)]
The Library of Congress’s Veterans History Project will
present a one-hour special titled “While the World Watched,” which
will be aired on and around Veterans Day, November 11, 2005 on
Public Radio International (PRI) affiliate stations around the
country. Check your local listings for air dates and times.
“While the World Watched” is the fourth program in the acclaimed
Experiencing War series. Former U.S. Senator Max Cleland is host of this series,
which is created and produced by Lee Woodman. The first two programs in the series, “Coming
Home” and “Lest We Forget,” were each awarded the Gracie Allen
Award from American Women in Radio and Television for “superior quality
in writing and production” in 2004 and 2005, respectively.
“While the World Watched” paints an unforgettable sound portrait
of the Nuremberg Trials through the voices of WWII veterans and eyewitnesses
of the
trials. This provocative radio documentary draws from the extraordinary collections
of the Library of Congress, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the
National Archives and Records Administration, and new interviews with witnesses
of the Trials.
“Listeners will hear actual testimony from the trials of major Nazi war
criminals as well as first-hand accounts of prosecutors, interpreters, and investigators
who gathered the documentation as evidence,” said Diane Kresh, director of the Veterans
History Project.
Host Max Cleland is an American war hero, a son of a World War II veteran and
a champion of the human spirit. He is a veteran who lost both legs and his right
arm in a grenade blast in Vietnam. He understands firsthand the emotional wounds
of war and has become a powerful force in garnering support for U.S. war veterans
and their stories.
Veterans from World War I through the current conflict and the civilians who
supported them are coming forward to record their personal stories for a growing
archives in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. The goal
of the Veterans History Project is to collect, preserve and share with future
generations the stories of all our war veterans, as well as those who supported
them at home and in the field.
To learn more about the project and the stories it has collected so far, visit
the Veterans History Project Web site at www.loc.gov/vets, where you will find
digital interviews, wartime memorabilia and information about how to participate
in the Project. To learn more about the radio special, visit the PRI InfoSite
for full details about this series at http://www.pri.org/infosite/programs/_specials/onetime/expwarwtww/index.cfm?fa=SPoverview.
Congress created the Veterans History Project with legislation sponsored by Rep.
Ron Kind (D-Wis.), Rep. Amo Houghton (R-N.Y.), Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Sen.
Max Cleland (D-Ga.) and Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.). The Project is developing
the way Congress envisioned: with grandchildren interviewing grandparents, veterans
interviewing each other, and students conducting interviews with neighbors as
classroom assignments. The project is unusual in that it is one of the few nationwide
oral history efforts relying on volunteers rather than professional oral historians
to collect stories.
Hundreds of organizations around the country are participating in the Veterans
History Project. Those who are interested in participating are encouraged to
e-mail the VHP at vohp@loc.gov to request a
project kit. The kit is also available on the Veterans History Project Web site
at http://www.loc.gov/vets/.
PRI is a Minneapolis-based public radio network and audio publisher
that supports and distributes programs, many of which are created
by leading national producers and are broadcast by its 744 public
radio station affiliates. PRI programming also is available on
locally branded public radio station Web sites, nationwide via
Sirius Satellite Radio and internationally through the World
Radio Network.
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PR 05-182
08/31/05
ISSN 0731-3527
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