The Audio Documentation

​​​​One of the most exciting collection at the IDF and Defense Establishment Archives  is the audio collection. Here one may listen to the great moments in history, such as the soldiers' distress in the Yom Kippur War, and the commanders' desperate requests for reinforcement and movement of troops; to the voices of commando (Sayyarot) heroes in debriefings in the wake of the IDF's greatest operations; to the speeches of the nation's great leaders, etc.

The audio collection at the IDF and Defense Establishment Archives was established in 1967, following the Six Days War, due to the need to document recorded data, such as briefings, communication networks, debriefings, and drawing of conclusions.

The collection – including recordings of communication networks from the Six Days War, The Yom Kippur War, and the Peace of Galilee War; of operational debriefings; General Staff meetings and reviews, interviews, speeches, etc. – is mainly used for research, alongside perusing of transcriptions and subject files.

The documentation main sources are the General Staff secretariat, the IDF's history branches, the Teleprocessing Corps, as well as documentation initiated by the archive.

The initiated documentation materials include interviews with IDF and Defense Establishment personalities in various subjects such as the establishment of the IDF, the establishment and development of the paratrooper corps, operational testimonials, Jewish combatants in various armies, escape and illegal immigration, saving Jews lives and their immigration to Israel, etc.

In addition the collection includes documentation of defense ministers, David Ben Gurion, Moshe Dayan, Shimon Peres, Ezer Weizmann, and Ariel Sharon.

There is a special collection of testimonials of pre-state combatants, the War of Independence, up to the Six Days War.

The archive stores recordings of programs broadcasted on the Army Radio Station, Galey Zahal, mainly from the 1960's – 1980's.

Naturally, most of the collection is classified, by the archive's employees are working on opening the recordings to the public, as well as preserving and digitizing them.

As of 2015, the collection contains over 96,000 recordings, out of which more than 200 channels are open to the public.

In the archive's reading room, one may listen to recordings and purchase audio pieces for a fee.