USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education

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The USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, formerly Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, is a nonprofit organization established by Steven Spielberg in 1994, one year after completing the Academy Award-winning film Schindler's List. The original aim of the Foundation was to record testimonies of survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust (which in Hebrew is called the Shoah) as a collection of videotaped interviews.

The Foundation conducted nearly 52,000 interviews between 1994 and 1999. Interviewees included Jewish survivors, homosexual survivors, Jehovah's Witness survivors, liberators and liberation witnesses, political prisoners, rescuers and aid providers, Roma and Sinti (Gypsy) survivors, survivors of Eugenics policies, and war crimes trials participants.

In January 2006, the Foundation partnered with and relocated to the University of Southern California and was renamed the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education. Its mission is "to overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry - and the suffering they cause - through the educational use of the Institute's visual history testimonies."

The Institute works within USC and with partners around the world to advance scholarship and research (for example with the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service), to provide resources and online tools for educators, and to disseminate the testimonies in its archive for educational purposes. In addition to preserving the testimonies, the Institute helps document the stories of survivors and other witnesses of other genocides. Currently, the Institute is working with the Rwandan organization IBUKA to begin a project to collect testimony from survivors of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that claimed as many as one million lives. Once collected and indexed, the testimony will be incorporated into the Visual History Archive, which contains all testimony previously collected by the Institute.

Research

The USC Shoah Foundation aspires to be the world’s academic authority on the study of genocide and personal testimony. The Institute continues to incorporate new collections of genocide eyewitnesses while simultaneously fostering scholarly activities that confront real-world problems the testimonies raise. Scholars in many fields have utilized the vast resources of the Visual History Archive teaching over 325 university courses based on the collection across four continents. Researchers and thought leaders have utilized the testimonies in more than 73 scholarly works and the archive has been central to dozens of conferences across a range of disciplines.

Three hundred twenty five university courses in more than 25 disciplines have incorporated Institute testimony, including 88 courses at USC
Thirty-five completed dissertations have drawn on Institute testimony
Each year the Institute invites a renowned international thought leader to serve as Scholar in Residence
Two accomplished senior scholars are invited to join the Institute’s Fellows program annually
The Institute awards up to 10 Fellows every year
More than a dozen events on the USC campus annually delivered by fellows, staff, and student interns
Partners in Screening The Future Conference as a leading voice in the future of digital preservation
An annual academic conference on the future of Testimony at the Institute

Education

The Institute develops teaching tools using testimony from the Visual History Archive for educators across the disciplinary spectrum such as history, civics, English and other language arts. The Institute also provides professional development to prepare educators worldwide to use testimony in relevant and engaging ways—providing an experience that takes students beyond the textbook. IWitness, the Institute’s flagship educational website for teachers and their students was recognized as one of the “Best Websites for Teaching and Learning” by the American Association of School Librarians in 2012. The website provides students access to 1,000 testimonies for guided exploration. Students can engage with the testimonies and bring them into their own multimedia projects via a built-in video editor. By combining testimonies with interactive and content-rich activities, IWitness promotes deeper understanding of 20th century history and development of 21st century digital literacy skills so as to inspire responsible participation in civil society.

iWitness has been accessed by approximately 4,000 high school students and nearly 2,000 educators in 26 countries and al 50 U.S. states
Through the Institute’s Teacher Innovation Network more than 2,500 educators around the world have been trained to incorporate testimony into classroom lessons
More than 100 educators have participated in the USC Shoah Foundation’s Master Teacher and Teaching with Testimony in the 21st Century programs in the U.S., Ukraine, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland

Global Access

Testimony is reaching a broad international audience through the Institute’s Visual History Archive, as well as IWitness, its YouTube channel, and its web portals provide resources in 11 languages. The complete Visual History Archive is available at 41 institutions around the world, while smaller collections are available at 179 sites in 30 countries. The Institute will continue to develop digital technologies to preserve and enhance the Visual History Archive while building access pathways for a broad audience of students, educators, scholars, and the general public.

Approximately one million students, researchers, teachers, and lay people view the testimonies every year
Visual History Archive Online (vhaonline.usc.edu) features more than 1,100 testimonies accessible through multiple channels worldwide including the Institute’s YouTube channel
Forty-one academic institutions in 11 countries have full access to the Visual History Archive
Smaller collections are available at 179 sites in 30 countries

Board of Councilors

Steven Spielberg, Honorary Chair
Edgar M. Bronfman, Honorary Co-chair
Renée Crown, Honorary Co-chair
Lew Wasserman, Honorary Co-chair in Memoriam
Wallis Annenberg
Russel Bernard
Gerald Breslauer
Jerome Coben
Stephen Cozen
Susan Crown
David Eisman
Phyllis Epstein
Emanuel Gerard
Andrea Gordon
Douglas Greenberg
Eric Greenberg
Yossie Hollander
Robert Katz
William Lauder
Lee Liberman
Skip Paul
Bruce Ramer
Harry Robinson
Michael Rutman
Mickey Shapiro
Jerry Speyer
Erna Viterbi
Casey Wasserman
Harold Williams

Founding Executive Directors

June Beallor
James Moll

Founding Advisory Committee

Karen Kushell
Branko Lustig
Gerald R. Molen

Executive Staff

Kim Simon, Director of Programs and Interim Executive Director
Sam Gustman, Chief Technology Officer
Karen Jungblut, Director of Research and Documentation
Steven Klappholz, Executive Director of Development
Ari Zev, Director of Administration

External links

v t e University of Southern California

Schools and divisions	Accounting Architecture Business Cinematic Arts Communication & Journalism Dance Dentistry Education Engineering Fine Arts Gerontology International Relations Law Letters, Arts and Sciences Medicine Music Occupational Therapy Pharmacy Physical Therapy Public Policy Social Work Dramatic Arts

Research	Alfred Mann Institute Andrus Gerontology Center Annenberg Center for Communication Brain and Creativity Institute Center for Biomimetic Microelectronic Systems Center for Visual Anthropology Center on Public Diplomacy Information Sciences Institute Institute for Creative Technologies Integrated Media Systems Center Jane Goodall Research Center Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute Norman Lear Center ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives Southern California Earthquake Center Southern California Marine Institute Tomás Rivera Policy Institute Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute

Athletics	USC Trojans Baseball Men's basketball Football Men's volleyball Women's volleyball Dedeaux Field Galen Center Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Fight On Spirit of Troy Rivalries with Notre Dame (Jeweled Shillelagh) and UCLA (Victory Bell) Lexus Gauntlet McDonald's Olympic Swim Stadium

Media	Annenberg TV News Daily Trojan KUSC KXSC Neon Tommy Trojan Vision

Miscellaneous	Campus Libraries Trojan Shrine Traditions Faculty Trojan Family Trojan Knights USC Helenes USC Shoah Foundation Pacific Philosophical Quarterly Southern California International Review

v t e Steven Spielberg

Filmography Awards and nominations

Directorial works	Firelight (1964) Slipstream (1967) Amblin' (1968) "L.A. 2017" (1971) Duel (1971) Something Evil (1972) The Sugarland Express (1974, also wrote) Jaws (1975) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977, also wrote) 1941 (1979) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) Twilight Zone: The Movie ("Kick the Can" segment, 1983) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) The Color Purple (1985) Empire of the Sun (1987) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) Always (1989) Hook (1991) Jurassic Park (1993) Schindler's List (1993) The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) Amistad (1997) Saving Private Ryan (1998) A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001, also wrote) Minority Report (2002) Catch Me If You Can (2002) The Terminal (2004) War of the Worlds (2005) Munich (2005) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) The Adventures of Tintin (2011) War Horse (2011) Lincoln (2012)

Written only	Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies (1973) Poltergeist (1982, also produced) The Goonies (1985)

Produced only	An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991) Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) Flags of Our Fathers (2006) Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) Super 8 (2011)

Created for TV	Amazing Stories (1985–1987) High Incident (1996–1997) Invasion America (1998)

See also	Amblin Entertainment Amblimation DreamWorks USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education

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