The New York Historical Presents a Powerful New Exhibition, The Recordings: Voices from the ShoahTapes

Audio cassette tapes from the Lanzmann Collection. Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Roman März

On view November 28, 2025 – March 29, 2026

 This November, The New York Historical presents a powerful new exhibition, The Recordings: Voices from the ShoahTapes, on view November 28, 2025 – March 29, 2026. An exhibition of the Jewish Museum Berlin, it features a special audio installation offering selections from the recently uncovered archive of Shoah (1985), Claude Lanzmann’s groundbreaking documentary about the Holocaust.

“Hearing the voices and personal stories of those who survived the Holocaust will, we hope, provide a vital history lesson to a new generation,” said Dr. Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of The New York Historical. “In the context of rising antisemitism today, The Recordings offers a powerful example of how quickly the perspective that Jewish people and their faith are to be superseded can seep into a nation’s political consciousness, then drive violence on the world stage. We are grateful to the Jewish Museum Berlin for partnering with us as we bring the important early recordings from the Shoah archive to a New York audience.”

“At the end of 2021, the Association Claude et Felix Lanzmann (A.C.F.L.), represented by Dominique Lanzmann, donated Lanzmann’s audio archive to the JMB,” said Hetty Berg, director of the Jewish Museum Berlin. “This now forms our Lanzmann Collection, which we have been working on cataloguing ever since. Since 2023, The Lanzmann Collection, together with Shoah, was designated part of the world’s cultural heritage by UNESCO. The exhibition Claude Lanzmann: The Recordings, invites visitors to a special listening experience: selected original recordings follow Lanzmann’s research and provide insight into the multi-layered memory of the Shoah in the 1970s.”

The Recordings: Voices from the Shoah Tapes is an exhibition of the Jewish Museum Berlin (JMB), curated by Tamar Lewinsky, and coordinated for The New York Historical by Valerie Paley, senior vice president and Sue Ann Weinberg director of the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library, and curatorial scholar Keren Ben-Horin. The installation presents for the first time selections from the audio archive of Shoah (1985), the landmark documentary by French journalist and filmmaker Claude Lanzmann (1925-2018). Together with the film, this archive was added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2023. The larger collection comprises 152 previously unknown cassette tapes, documenting conversations Lanzmann and his assistants held throughout the 1970s during the years-long research process that preceded filming.

The recordings capture preliminary interviews with survivors, perpetrators, and bystanders of the Holocaust, offering rare insight into the genesis of Shoahwhile also preserving a remarkable collection of non-standardized eyewitness testimony. Presented on the centenary of Lanzmann’s birth, the installation underscores the enduring power of memory, testimony, and the preservation of voices from history. The recordings are part of the JMB collection and will be fully accessible online by 2027.

Support
Support for The Recordings: Voices from the Shoah Tapes at The New York Historical is provided by the David Berg Foundation, Edythe Gladstein, Susan and Roger Hertog, Leah and Michael Weisberg, Leslie Himmel and Alan Shuch, and Barbara and David Zalaznick.

Support for Claude Lanzmann: The Recordings is provided by the German Foreign Office and the Alfred Landecker Foundation. The JMB is subsidized by the Minister of State for Culture and the Media.

Exhibitions at The New York Historical are made possible by Dr. Agnes Hsu-Tang and Oscar Tang, the Saunders Trust for American History, the Evelyn & Seymour Neuman Fund, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. WNET is the media sponsor.

About The New York Historical 
New York’s first museum, The New York Historical is a leading cultural institution covering over 400 years of American history. Our offerings span groundbreaking exhibitions; peerless collections of art, documents, and artifacts; acclaimed educational programs for teachers and students nationwide; and thought-provoking conversations among leading scholars, journalists, and thinkers about the past, present, and future of the American experiment. The New York Historical is a museum of museums and a collection of collections. We are home to the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library, the Center for Women’s History, the DiMenna Children’s History Museum, and the future American LGBTQ+ Museum. We elevate the perspectives and scholarship that define the United States’ democratic heritage and challenge us all to shape our ongoing history for the better. Connect with us at nyhistory.org or at @nyhistory on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Tumblr.