United Nations Oral History
The United Nations Oral History Collection of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library consists of a series of interviews with eminent persons and serving and former staff members of United Nations recorded over many years. The interviews cover a wide range of major world events and issues.
The interviews shed light on the history of the founding of the Organization and its important role in conflict resolution since 1945. They also provide a wealth of information for scholars and the media to illuminate the activities of the United Nations during turbulent periods in world history for research and public awareness.
This site provides the audio files and transcripts of the interviews.
In The Spotlight
2011 marks the 50th Anniversary of Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld's untimely death in a plane crash while on peace mission in the Congo. On this occasion, we spotlight the interview with Pauline Frederick, who as the United Nations correspondent for ABC and NBC was in a position to interact with Dag Hammarskjöld in the course of her duties. In the interview Ms. Frederick said: “The more I knew Dag Hammarskjold, and the more I saw him in operation, and heard what he thought and said, the more I became impressed by the fact that this man was really dedicated to what the United Nations was meant to be: a place for harmonizing actions to bring about resolution of difficulties so there wouldn’t be another war.” Continue reading Pauline Frederick interview…
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Technology Requirements
To listen to the oral history you can use various media players. Transcripts of the recordings are PDF documents which require Adobe Acrobat Reader. Please see our technical page for more information.
