DOI: 10.17903/fk2/obktvw
title: ZANNEION ORAL HISTORY ARCHIVES. MEMORIES AND TELLING STORIES

description: The task assigned to the groups was to find informants willing to work together to testify. Initially, the collection of information per group and historical period was sought in the following order: 1st. Asia Minor catastrophe-Refugee, 2nd. War of the '40s-Occupation-Resistance-Civil War, 3rd. Post-war years-Migration, 4th. Seven years-Polytechnic-Cyprus, 5th. Metapolitism-urban and suburban area of ​​Piraeus. But as suggested from the beginning, this distribution would not be binding on the members at all, but more conventional. In fact, life itself, that is, the availability of the material and the capabilities of the subgroups, would determine the final form that the final deliverable would take - a research process, to the end pending, full of surprises, upheavals and adjustments. Thus, the information flowed from all sides without restricting the initial thematic ranking of the expected work of the groups, releasing the members. In the end, it was this historical material that determined the final physiognomy of the deliverable, that is, its internal structure, the number and variety of oral evidence that emerged, the quality of our work. Apparently, for structural reasons, their classification or categorization changed and took the form of a hand-held guide, with obvious changes from our first thoughts - which, we think, did not in any way alter the significance of the work produced or escaped them. our initial goals. Because by its nature, dealing with Oral History is a primarily active process, all the groups that were formed also had the supervision of the material, which slowly enriched and continues to enrich our Archive. Our goal was to emerge from the testimony something direct and personal, something authentic and unique, with little or no interference or intervention during the interview. By the method of elaboration and analysis of written or recorded and / or videotaped sources / items, with the discreet guidance of the supervising teacher who acted by healing, where necessary, the cognitive complications or the bibliographic deficiencies were eliminated. , the collaborative nature of teaching in an open learning environment where knowledge was socially constructed (constructivism). Pupils came into direct contact with history and its recording-interpretation as a living process instead of just studying it. In particular, the teacher had to help the students to evaluate the content of the selected testimonies, to classify them by period, to record them and to historicize them. Here the students formulated their conclusions and included them in a structured whole. Thus, the historical material contributed to the occasion of a creative dialogue between the generations, the connecting link of a chain that bridges yesterday with today. Through the story, the children were endowed with skills of empathy and social sensitivity, psycho-ideological wealth and cultural values ​​- at the research level, they drew conclusions about what happened and why, that is, they interpreted the evidence that they collected, composed and composed. Reliable Records of Oral Testimonies and self-evaluated the work of their Team at the end of each research mission. Particular attention was paid to the preparation of the interview from the moment that the willing informant / student was identified through the network of student-researchers. It became clear from the theoretical preparation of the groups that in the context of the school experience, in order to achieve a proper interview, attention should be paid to the following points: • students address themselves politely, act consistently and cultivate a climate of trust • before from the interview to be informed about the historical context within which the oral testimony they will record will move. As, after all, the researcher Tassoula Vervenioti notes "the more the researcher knows, the more he learns" which will bring practical difficulties along the way. Another will have taken care to classify and present at the appropriate time the auxiliary material (photos, articles, etc.) • the questions to be clear and targeted • to let the informant speak freely without much interruption. The interview should be a free narrative of life and should be structured, that is, specific questions, which the students will address to the witness, without "blackmailing" answers and without to be careful and patient, giving the witness the time he or she needs to respond in his or her own way; questions that lead to one-word answers (type "yes" or "no") are avoided. Also avoid "misleading" questions, which are intended to trap or elicit answers; • have made sure to inform the informant about the content of the interview, leaving a reasonable amount of time before the meeting. Thus, the informant will be able to reconstruct his memory as much as possible, to prepare, as he wishes, the utterance but also the choice of the narrators • to watch the informant carefully and to be alert and ready to distract -if possible- a very useful information without this seeming pre-planned. During the processing of the oral testimony and in view of the creation and maintenance of a Historical Record of Oral Testimonies, the researchers recorded the interview in written text / sheet, having previously noted the following information at the beginning of the record sheet: name of the informant, gender, age, place and interview time. The written recording (transcript) of this interview was made, even if there was recording and / or video recording, except in a few cases, due to the large extent of the testimony. It should be noted that in all cases a written consent for publication was requested and obtained from the informants. They then briefed the plenary on the details at one of its regular meetings. They made an overall evaluation of the results, announced the difficulties, surprises or pending issues and, after a dialogue with the involvement of all groups, solutions were sought or ideas-opinions were heard for the best use of other possible meetings. Then, the subgroup that had the main responsibility for the course of the interview and the fate of the recorded material passed to the next phase, that of the historicization of the testimony, ie its inclusion in the wider historical context from where it came from (past) and was withdrawn. (present). A report prepared by the working group provided the necessary information giving a historical substance to the testimony. In the end, she recorded her conclusions, findings and thoughts from this "meeting" of the informal-individual experience with the official-public discourse of the recorded History. Interviews present many problems, since there is an involvement of the values ​​and mentality of an era, unconsciously, in the "beliefs" of the person who speaks. It is difficult to discern truly personal views. As has already been mentioned and according to the psychoanalytic theory, "memory is an ex post construction that structures the various pieces from the past under the influence of the present" (A. Vidalis, 2002: 129). Nevertheless, research is a fascinating and demanding process of self-knowledge. Memory and oblivion, contradictions, heroic or self-righteous reason, self-promotion, lies, or inaccuracies compose the very human nature that recalls and reproduces the very life that was experienced and recalled in different historical contexts.