In the archives of UCLA's library, there is a remarkable seven-hour interview conducted

in 1988 with a woman named Helen Slote Levit.

Along with a separate interview with Helen's husband, Al Levit.

Each conversation spanning an extraordinary period, the Great Depression, the Second World War,

the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement.

What I'd like you to start with is your biographical background.

When and where you were born, your parents, your family, etc.

Fine, my roots are solidly middle class, Jewish, Brooklyn, out of Poland.

The interviews were conducted by the historian Larry Soplair over the course of many months.

He remembers the Levit's well, particularly Helen, petite, intense, alive, but in some

sense wounded.

It was an interesting interview because when I first approached them, they said no.

They were justifiably, I think, wary of people coming to ask them questions, the answers

which they refused to give to other people.

So I made a deal with them.

I said, I'd send them five questions through the mail and then they could look them over

and if they thought those were legitimate, we could talk on the phone.

They would answer them, which they did.

They came to trust me, that I wasn't someone who was going to betray them in any way.

The Levit's had their reasons for not trusting outsiders as you will hear.

They are, you know, the Jewish term, starker.

It means strong, you know, kind of tough.

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