Buffalo Bill from Bochnia in Auschwitz: A Performative Memoir in Four Acts

What happens when children record their survivor-parent’s Holocaust experiences? And what happens when that child is also a Holocaust historian? This chapter describes and analyzes my journey into the realm of Holocaust testimony from the perspective of the interviewer\documenter. I will analyze the impact that interviewing my father and writing two books about his Holocaust experiences had on my personal and professional identity and my psyche as the daughter of a survivor who is also a Holocaust historian. I look at the process as a performative memoir in four acts, with the interviews taking place 9 years apart (1983, 1992) and the books, based primarily on the interviews, being written 15 years apart (1994, 2009). There was even an encore to this performance, or rather an epilogue that began in 2019 and continues until today.