Our Story

By Anita Hecht, Director of Life History Services

Anita Hecht, Director, Life History Services

In 1997, I founded LIFE HISTORY SERVICES with the mission of helping others honor the past, capture the present, and inform the future. An interest first sparked as a Fulbright scholar in West Germany, I began recording oral histories in 1995 with Steven Spielberg’s Visual History Foundation of the Holocaust. I conducted over 40 videotaped interviews with Holocaust survivors around the globe in English, Spanish, and German.

Ever since then I have been actively helping individuals, families, communities, public institutions, businesses, and others record and preserve their unique stories. Along with a wonderful team of production assistants, I have produced hundreds of memoirs and oral history archives in print, audio, video, and multimedia formats.

With her father, Rudolph Hecht, 1997

Your Story

As you consider the various options, it is important to remember that the core value of any recorded history project lies in the quality of the interview itself. Meaningful interviews put narrators at ease and in charge of their own story while exploring substantive lines of inquiry. This process of meaningful engagement is at the core of my work at Life History Services. I am honored to serve each client directly, and I aspire to bring practiced guidance, intellectual curiosity, deep listening, and a professional production team to every project.

Below is a brief resume of my background and experience. I would be delighted to begin a conversation with you today about your wishes.

Over 400 personal, family, business, and community-based oral history projects
Licensed independent clinical social worker & psychotherapist
Trained interviewer of Holocaust survivors for Steven Spielberg’s Visual History Foundation of the Shoah
Published writer, lecturer, and oral history consultant
Board of Directors, Association of Personal Historians, 1998-2004
Member, Oral History Association & International Institute on Reminiscence & Life Review
Masters of Science in Clinical Social Work, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Bachelor of Arts in History, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Phi Beta Kappa
Fulbright Scholar
Fluency in English, Spanish, German

For a free consultation, please CONTACT us.

Thank you for sending me my oral history. You certainly do exceedingly professional and interesting work, and I hope your services can continue to be put to good use with respect to many subjects and people!

Judge Richard Cudahy

United States Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit

Your gentle questioning and sympathetic manner helped me search and express ideas that had never occurred to me, but lay buried in my subconscious.

Joseph

Cantor-Educator, California

We were very, very pleased with the results [of the oral history project]—the rapport you established with each of the various members, of different ages and attitudes, and the business like manner in which the job was done.

Don Green

Chair of the Edith S. Green Oral History Project, Temple Emanu-El, California

I believe that your work will prove therapeutic to some who feel the loneliness of not being able to share memories of their lives. Thank you for your interesting and stimulating presentation.

Jan

Director, Senior Center, California

Being videotaped was so much easier than I had anticipated. Many of my concerns were eliminated at our first preliminary meeting.

Raymond Marks

Banker, California

I learned so much. I had no idea my grandmother spoke 5 languages! I also realized that my aunts both earned their masters degree – such modern women for the 1940s!

Helen

Daughter, Wisconsin

You know how to make your interviewee comfortable and your questions come at the right time—they do not interrupt thought, but keep the conversation flowing; moreover, they lead to substantive answers.

Louis Heilbron

Attorney-Educator, California

I thank you very much for the interest you placed in this work, based on your intelligent and skillful questions that did not interrupt the flow of the conversation, but were inserted at the appropriate places.

Rina

Daughter, Mexico

The preliminary meeting also made me more comfortable so that at the interview itself, I could relax, ignore the camera and just have a pleasant chat, reminiscing with you.

Melvin

Retired Businessman, California

It’s been a wonderful experience. One great advantage of an oral history conducted by a pro, like yourself, is you think at the time you know everything you’re going to say and remember. And then in the context of a focused, professional interview, a light goes on and you remember things that had been buried. We’re talking about the obvious, and suddenly, buried, hidden under the obvious, is new stuff. It’s wonderful!”

Kenneth Roy Feinberg

Attorney, Special Master, 911 Victim Compensation Fund