Aural History

It sounds like a no-brainer: an audio documentary featuring firsthand Holocaust survivor accounts. Yet despite the familiarity of the concept behind “Voices of the Shoah: Remembrances of the Holocaust,” the project’s producer, filmmaker David Notowitz, insists that “until now, nothing like this has ever been done and released to the public in audio. It sounds strange, but it’s true.”

The pet project of Rhino Records President Richard Foos, “Voices of the Shoah: Remembrances of the Holocaust” is a four-CD set released in mid-March that recreates and explores the Holocaust — including circumstances leading up to it, and its aftermath — through the power of oral history told by those who lived through it. In fact, Notowitz confirms that aside from “Voices”‘ narrator, actor Elliott Gould, every voice heard on the box set is that of an actual survivor.

An observant Jew living in the Pico-Robertson community, Notowitz came to Rhino’s mixing boards with much experience, having already explored Jewish themes as a film editor on “The Last Klezmer” and as the Emmy-nominated filmmaker behind “Carpati.” When he assumed the reins of “Voices,” Notowitz found that he could not use much of the 180 British archive interviews Rhino had acquired. So he started conducting his own interviews, culling Holocaust memories from 25 survivors.

“I wanted to go much more in-depth, before the war, so people would understand what was lost,” says Notowitz, who was very curious about the turbulent era’s less-emphasized, relatively mundane aspects of the Jewish experience, such as Shabbat traditions, and the Yiddish spoken in the home. Notowitz also did not refrain from confronting survivors with some weightier questions, such as “Why did this happen to you?” and “After experiencing the Holocaust, do you still believe in God?”

“It goes both ways,” Notowitz discovered of whether or not the survivors he spoke to embraced or rejected the teachings of the Torah. “Some came out with a stronger belief in God. One person or another saved them — that was a miracle. One man said to me that he promised God that if he got out of there alive, he would put on tefillin every day. He still does that now.”

Fortunately for the native Californian, the Holocaust did not figure into the history of his own ancestors, who have lived in America since the end of the 19th century. But having worked on “Voices of the Shoah” for more than five years, Notowitz has developed a special connection with the project. Not only did he gain a comprehensive under-standing of what the European Jews experienced during World War II, he developed a strong bond with the survivors that he encountered.

“I’ve done tons of interviews. I thought I could be objective,” says Notowitz, who spent many long hours listening again and again to the emotionally wrenching testimonies of his subjects. “By the end of the week, I was having pretty intense nightmares. I realized that I had to back off from stacking too many interviews in one week because of the intensity.”

It was also while composing “Voices” that he found his beshert in the person he had hired to help him conduct those difficult, charged interviews. He and his wife, Aviva, a nurse for the L.A. County Health Department, will celebrate their third anniversary this summer.

Notowitz, who received creative carte blanche putting together “Voices of the Shoah” (which, incidentally, has no connection with the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation founded by Steven Spielberg), says that he would work with Rhino Records again in a heartbeat. He observes that the hip, West Los Angeles-based company offered crucial and insightful feedback every step of the way and that they were smart to pursue an audio format that can be listened to on the home computer or in the car.

“Audio allows you to really experience, to use your imagination,” says Notowitz, who first tasted the power of the medium listening to “Mystery Theater” and old radio programs.

He particularly commends Foos for greenlighting and championing “Voices,” despite its inherent commercial challenges.

“He has the resources to do it, and I’m thankful that he did,” says Notowitz, who recalls Foos sharing with the producer-filmmaker his father’s reaction to the project. As the elder Foos told his son: “This makes me more proud than anything you’ve ever done.”

The four CD box set “Voices of the Shoah: Remembrances of the Holocaust” (also available in cassettes) can be found at retail record stores or through RhinoDirect at www.rhino.com. Proceeds from the project will go to beneficiary agencies of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. To contact David Notowitz or for more information about his work, visit www.notowitz.com.