Interview with great uncle

[sgriffin383]

I am going to send a questionaire to my great uncle who fought for Germany in WW2. He lives in Canada. I was going to go see him last summer but he did not want guests. I have talked to him on the phone and he seems receptive. What kind of questions do you ask? And more importantly, how do ypu get him to respnd without feeling embarrassed about his experience. I am a combat veteran myself, but nothing that I experienced would compare to WW2. I was not going to talk about the gory details, just family history and his military history. Has any of you done this before?

[Christoph Awender]

Hello

I have done over hundred interviews with veterans in the last 15 years and my oppinion is that you should talk to them with all the normality and respect you show to other "normal" people.
I just can tell you how I did it with my interviews which all went pretty good. First you should clearly formulate WHY you are interested in WW2 and his story. Nearly all veterans have already a clear story they always tell or have in their mind. I always let them start from their own... let them tell me what they WANT to tell me. There you get an idea of the person and how he thinks.
Usually I record the interview when they allow it. During the first "run" of his story I take notes about things I would like to know more or get more into detail. When questioning for more details usually as in all normal conversations you will come to many new stories and directions.
Be prepared with informations about his unit... maps, books, photos will bring his memory to live and you will come to many more informations connected to the visual impressions. Prepare some questions for the end related to the specific unit.. maybe they had some rare equipment, involved in interesting operations etc...

/Christoph

[Annelie]

If read your post correctly your sending the questionaire? Would I be correct that this means the mail?
I would defintely ask his permission first whether or not he would mind or be receptive?

Other than that everything Christop Awender wrote I agree with.

[Jason Pipes]

I can't agree enough with the above comments. Establishing a meaningful and natural rapport with the individual first, and then letting that person be themselves and express their thoughts and ideas are critical to a successful interview. It's also important to know something about your subject ahead of time so you can ask questions to fill in gaps and to occasionally ask questions in order to establish a framework or to lead the responses in a certain direction. These latter skills are very subtle and when used properly will allow you to solicit excellent responses.

[Christoph Awender]

Hello,

Oh sorry, I didn´t get that you won´t meet him personally.

/Christoph

[sgriffin383]

Thanks for the replies. He is my last surviving relative that has such history directly. I was late in the game discovering some of these things. I went to Germany last year and found out that all of my veteran relatives had already died. I got some stories, but not first hand accounts. Thank you to all!

[Annelie]

Any updates with the interview with your great Uncle?

[sgriffin383]

Anneile:

Not yet. I was trying to get through the holidays first. I will post results.

Shane