Much of what we know about the Holocaust comes from the written and oral testimonies of survivors. It shapes our understanding, stirs our emotions and cements our humanity. Even if an image is drawn, the pieces that compose it are unique. Interpreting each unique piece comes with unique challenges. The challenge of faulty memory, dialects, accents, word choices and translations can be intimidating for the interpreter. When trying to achieve a concise understanding, it is necessary to build a complement of written and oral testimony. It becomes an even more daunting task when it comes to achieving a deep understanding of something that has the magnitude of the Holocaust. To do justice to the matter, it is of utmost importance to strike a balance between what is heard and what is read. Before we examine the importance of written and oral testimony, we must first consider the importance of testimony in general. Testimonials make it easier to personalize the story. It is difficult to understand what it would take for a mother to take the lives of her children in order to spare them the pain and suffering that awaited them in the concentration camps. Or the testimonies of children forced to steal out of necessity to feed their families. This gives us a complex insight into the world and the choices these survivors faced. When we talk about hardship, terror and survival, the Holocaust becomes a gateway to the past. We may not want to walk through that door, but we have to. Testimonies improve our understanding. They offer details not found in other publications about the events, such as in the film Weapons of the Spirit. It is a documentary film by Pierre Sauvage on a village in France occupied by the Nazis which sheltered...... middle of paper ...... understanding, it is necessary to form a complement of written and oral testimonies. To do justice to the matter, it is of utmost importance to strike a balance between what is heard and what is read. While writing is more static, speaking is more dynamic. Written testimony can sometimes be more precise: the words can be chosen with more consideration since the information is not transmitted at a given moment. The reader has their own pace to digest the information. Such factors can have a profound effect on the reader's understanding. Oral testimony can have a greater effect in expressing the subject's emotions to a listener. When speaking: gestures, volume, pauses, intonation can cause an interpretation quite different from that if these words were to be read. When attempting to form a concise understanding, one must form a complement of written and oral testimony..