Since 1997, the Foundation of the Hellenic World is conducting a program that collects filmed autobiographical interviews by people who came to Greece from Asia Minor and Pontus, around 1922, as refugees. The program records the experience of enforced and violent displacement of the refugees and how the refugee experience affected the course of their lives and subsequently their social identity.


Until today, more than 150 people that belong in the refugee generation born prior to 1924, have given interviews and autobiographies. People from younger generations, who experienced the efforts of refugees to recreate their lives, are added to this database. Each and every one of them, are in their own right, guardians of the memory and heritage of their communities.

The "Testimonies" are organized in a one of a kind archive, precious, exactly because it preserves the image of the last Asia Minor born Greeks. Material from the interviews was used in the documentary "We were children then", which was shown on the ET1 channel in 1999 and is available at "Hellenic Cosmos".