The Pre-Interview Questionnaire is a paper document created prior to the video recording. It contains many pages of detailed biographical information as recorded by the interviewee. Only a small amount of this information is extracted from each questionnaire to form the catalog record that is searched by the Testimony Catalog and the Biographical Search portion of the VHA.

From the Foundation website's Interview Page at www.vhf.org

About a week before the videotaping session, the interviewer helped the survivor or witness to complete a Pre-Interview Questionnaire.

The Pre-Interview Questionnaire was designed to elicit detailed biographical information such as birthplace, education, ghetto and camp experiences, resistance activities, and information about family members. The responses provided a basis for the interviewer's preparatory research and enabled him or her to formulate questions appropriate to the survivor's age, education, social and religious background, and experiences during the Holocaust.

During the preliminary meeting, the interviewer explained the interview format and prepared the interviewee to think about what he or she wanted to say. The time spent working together on the questionnaire also helped the interviewer and interviewee to establish a rapport that carried over to the videotaped interview.