From Memory - war oral history programme

Gathering history - From Memory

Strangely enough – it might sound funny in this day and age – but we felt it was our duty. The five of us used to go and have a drink at the City Hotel and we decided, 'Yes, we'll all join up.' That's how it happened.

Joseph Bacos, 20 Armoured Regiment, in Megan Hutching (ed.), A fair sort of battering: New Zealanders remember the Italian campaign, 2004

From Memory records the voices of New Zealanders who have served their country in time of war: soldiers, sailors, airmen, nurses and the thousands of other personnel at home and overseas. These ordinary New Zealanders have extraordinary stories to tell – the human and personal stories of war.

The programme is run by New Zealand's Ministry for Culture and Heritage, which is depositing its interviews in the From Memory collection of the Alexander Turnbull Library's Oral History Centre. Veterans will be interviewed from the 20th century conflicts in which New Zealand was involved – the Second World War, Korea, Malaya and Borneo; Vietnam veterans are part of another project.

The generation of New Zealanders who served in the Second World War is diminishing fast and with them go their memories of an epic time. For this reason they are the current focus of the From Memory programme.

Do your own war oral history interviews

You, too, can gather New Zealanders' war stories and contribute to the From Memory programme.

This site contains all the information you need to conduct your own war oral history interviews. It should be read in conjunction with our Guide to recording oral history. In this feature you will find background notes and suggested questions that will be useful for interviewing Second World War veterans. Material relevant to subsequent conflicts will appear on the site in due course. And extracts from oral histories will become available too.

We welcome enquiries about participating in the From Memory programme or about interviewing war veterans.

Contact:

Alison Parr
Phone: 0064 4 496 6331
Fax: 0064 4 499 4490
email: