SS'ers tussen waarheid en leugen

Samenvatting

SS Men between Truth and Lie. The validity of information obtained through oral history interviews has often been questioned because many people tend to recall the past in a nostalgic way. To investigate possible distortion of negative events, telephone interview data were obtained from 15 Dutch residents who had served the Nazis in the Waffen-SS secret police during WWII. Correlation of the data with dossiers from official investigations reveals a measure of discrepancy; however, this does not totally negate the value of oral history. It is concluded that oral history, like any other type of historical source material, should always be examined critically.