WWII Archives:Interview Guide

This section details the WWII Archives guide to conducting an interview.

Goal of doing an interview

The goal of an interview is generally to collect as much info about the story of the person being interviewed as possible so that their story doesn't go away. In doing such, you will also attempt to get the story of the people they met, knew, were friends with, family, etc in order to save as much of their story as possible as well (the unfortunate truth is that the majority of the people they knew are gone and their stories are gone unrecorded. Therefore this interview with a person they knew is very likely to be anyone's last shot at getting their personal story in at least some detail).

Requirements in an interview

Before doing any interview, it is highly recommended that the interviewer does research about the things they know about the person (where they grew up, their parent's origins, where they lived, where they worked, the branch/unit they were in, etc). Other than that, in order to have a complete interview for the WWII Archives you must have the following:

1. A complete introduction

1. Date
2. Location
3. Interviewer name and any affiliations as well as any relation to the WWII Archives
4. The person being interviewed's full name
5. Give them thanks

2. Disclaimers and notifications for the person being interviewed

1. Tell them/ask them to forgive you that you will ask too many questions as you are trying to save as much as possible.
2. Follow with the fact that you are trying to not only save their story, but also the story of the people they knew, met, were friends with, etc since their story will likely be lost almost entirely if they didn't recount it. Therefore you will as for names, personal details, etc.

3. Detailed questions going through life and experiences

4. Ask them if they have any photographs, documents, etc that could be digitized by the WWII Archives

5. Thank them again for their time in sitting down for the interview and even for their service if they served.

Full list of questions and setting up the interview

If you would like ideas for a list of questions, here is a great resource: https://rememberww2.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/RWWII-Interview-Guide.pdf You may also consult this video for how to set up the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTuPhWf7NQw

Uploading and file management

For information on what to use for conducting an interview, see here. If your interview exceeds 1 GB (which is very likely), see more info here before uploading