The paper presents the development of oral history about the Holocaust from the first research projects undertaken immediately after the war to the modern, global initiatives of recording interviews with survivors, and archives providing thousands of such audiovisual testimonies. This development forms a part of the broader perspective of collective memory – especially in the U.S. – about the Holocaust and the changes in the perception of survivors–witnesses and their testimonies. A special place within such memory was given to the historiography of the Holocaust – using several vivid examples, the author shows different approaches to these sources: from wary and even suspicious, to uncritically affirmative. The conclusion outlines other than purely historical possible interpretations of these sources.