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Krus, D. J. & Nelsen, E. A. (1997) Issues in validity of oral history: credibility of foreign informants. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 85, 1288-1290.
David J. Krus and Edward A. Nelsen Summary—Two case studies involving testimonies of foreign participant-observers were scrutinized with respect to their validity. The obtained results indicate that independent verification of oral narratives should be obtained whenever possible. When foreign participant-observers volunteer information about events indigenous to their native country, it is sometimes uncritically accepted as an aura of expertise is accorded them. During a recent social gathering in an affluent suburb, the hostess was showing color slides of her travels in central Europe. While showing pictures of Prague, Bohemia, she remarked that most of the buildings were undamaged by war save a few, bombed ‘by mistake. The hostess added that she was not sure whether this is true. ‘I WAS THERE’ An elderly lady from the audience exclaimed. ‘It is true! I was there.’ The audience seemed to accept her claim; at least no one contradicted it, as her age and accent corroborated her claim that she was in Prague at the time of the bombings. Being in the bombing target area, however, does not authenticate her assertion about the aims of the Harris Bomber Command HQ or the flight plans of British Royal Air Force. The ‘mistake’ hypothesis was promoted in Czechoslovakia shortly after the war to alleviate the cognitive dissonance about Czech volunteers taking part in Allied aerial raids, being greeted as war heroes, but, bombing their own capital. Indeed, this claim is confuted by the fact that the huge Kolben-Danek industrial complex, critical to German war effort, was located in Prague. One may also consult the relevant sections of the authoritative Hastings’ (1989) monograph based on the AIR Operational Record Books. With respect to Bohemia, Hastings mentions only one navigational error. During a night raid of April 7, 1943, the 76 Squadron mistook a lunatic asylum for an armament factory. The Squadron Record Book included someone’s, presumably tongue in cheek remark, that the loss of 11 percent of aircraft in this particular raid was to be expected due to the fact that the raid was ‘carried out in perfect moonlight’ (p. 198). ‘EVERY SCHOOL CHILD KNOWS IT IS TRUE’ The hostess also projected a slide of Prague’s Horologium, located in tower adorning the Municipal Building on Prague’s Old Town Square. It displays hourly a procession of apostles, marching to the tune of a bell that is tolled by a skeleton opening and closing its jaws to the tune played. As she displayed the slide, the hostess commented that in the Middle Ages the Horologium was judged so unique and beautiful that the city fathers blinded the person who constructed it, fearing he might also build it elsewhere. She added, again, that this story is possibly apocryphal. At this time a voice with a similar accent rose from the audience saying ‘Every schoolchild in Bohemia knows it is true;’ however, visiting the very building housing the Horologium too can refute the assertion of this foreign claimant. Displayed in a glass vitrine, the Latin manuscript by Bohuslav Balbin states the Horologium was constructed by Mr. Hanus in 1490 and operated by him thereafter. At the time of Mr. Hanus’ death this duty was transferred to Mr. Zvonek; however, upon experiencing a major problem with the clock mechanism, Mr. Zvonek was not able to repair it, so the city fathers had to pay an outside consultant, Mr. Taborsky, to do the job. After Mr. Taborsky’s death, nobody knew how to maintain it, so the Horologium was defunct for more than a century. In 1865, the Horologium was restored by watchmaker Mr. Holub and has been operational ever since. THE APOCRYPHAL STORY OF the HAPLESS CLOCKMAKER The story of the blinding of Mr. Hanus was told by Alois Jirasek in his book, Stare Povesti Ceske [The Old Czech Legends] (1981, pp. 196-204). The story of the hapless clockmaker is close to certain facts. The name is historically correct and the fact that the Horologium was defunct is correct. Only the time plane is shifted, and an atrocity was added. The highlights of Jirasek’s story are as follows. Mr. Hanus was sitting in his study, surrounded by books and drawings. Two candles were burning on his desk and the logs in the fireplace were glowing. Suddenly, three masked persons entered the room. While one of them muttered ‘and now try to make another Horologium,’ the masked strangers restrained Mr. Hanus and, using the poker they heated in the flames of the fireplace burned out his eyes. Months later recovered from his ordeal but sensing his end approaching, Mr. Hanus visited his beloved Horologium for the last time. Touching its intricate machinery, he pulled out one of its parts. The Horologium stopped. Mr. Hanus died few days later. Nobody knew how to repair the Horologium and thus it remained defunct for centuries. Admittedly, this story is more colorful than Balbin’s factual account. Most of Jirasek’s stories were convincing and readily accepted, but around the turn of the century, his reputation as the master storyteller prompted an interview about the verity of his stories. When queried by a Czech counterpart of Morley Safer, Jirasek replied: ‘Sir, I am a novelist, not an historian.’ The credibility of foreign informants is just a facet of the complex problems associated with issues pertaining to validity of oral history. These case studies indicate that caution should be exercised and that independent verification of related narratives should be obtained whenever possible. REFERENCES Hastings, M. (1989) Bomber command. New York: Simon & Schuster. Jirasek, A. (1981) Stare Povesti Ceske. Bohemia: Ceskoslovensky Spisovatel. |
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