A Digital Video Archive: Educating Youth, Reaching the Public, and Preserving the Memory of the Holocaust Shoah Foundation Institute University of Southern California

3 What Do We Do? 1994 – 2000 Collect video testimonies of Holocaust survivors and witnesses before it is too late 2000 – 2005 Digitize, index, and catalogue the testimonies to make them accessible to students, teachers, and scholars 2006 – present Provide access to and use the Institute’s testimonies for educational purposes 52,000 interviews Visual History Archive VIDEO TESTIMONY IN THE CLASSROOM

4 THE MISSION STATEMENT To overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry—and the suffering they cause— through the educational use of the Institute’s visual history testimonies

5 Testimony Collection 52,000 videotaped testimonies 100,000 hours 56 countries 32 languages by 2,000 interviewers 1,000 videographers 70 regional staff

– 2000 Interviews by Experience Jewish Survivorsca. 49,000 Rescuers and Aid Providersca. 1,100 Sinti and Roma (Gypsy) Survivorsca. 400 Liberators and Liberation Witnessesca. 360 Political Prisonersca. 260 Jehovah’s Witness Survivorsca. 80 War Crimes Trials Participantsca. 70 Survivors of Eugenics Policies13 Homosexual Survivors8

6 Response and Legacy Original vision nearly 15 years ago “So generations never forget what so few lived to tell” and “To capture on videotape the faces and voices of survivors and other witnesses before it was too late Full life story Not the first, nor was it the “only” effort Survivors around the world, regardless of language and culture, understood the purpose Concern about the “sweep” of such a large project The very existence of a testimony project with such breadth could signify a replacement Nothing can replace the ineffable experience of relating to and connecting with a human being

7 Opportunities Survivors in the Classroom and Survivor Video Testimony both have the potential to: Exemplify the human story Tell what happened to individuals, families, communities Help localize history Provide information that is often not found in other sources Can be an effective way to help students see others like themselves Enable students to connect with history Raise issues that adolescents confront in their daily lives: fairness, justice, individual responsibility, etc. Inspire students’ dialogue about their own role in the society

8 Visits of Survivors to a Classroom and Survivor Video Testimony With mediation and context, video testimony can enhance not only the study of history, but also literature, language arts, civics, religion, character education, diversity awareness, etc. Whereas it is impossible to replace a human being by a video tape, the video testimony can also serve as an educational resource for educators and students Visit of a Survivor to the Classroom Original source Opportunity of interaction and connection between the students and the survivor Capacity for inspiration Impromptu and spontaneous nature Potential for ongoing connection Video Testimony Flexibility (testimony can be edited for specific purposes, whereas survivor's visit cannot) Modular application (clips from several testimonies can be used within one topic) Transportability (can be brought in classrooms all over the world, web capacity) Applicability (clips can be used in products: textbooks, films, multimedia, etc.) Teacher has an opportunity to provide additional historical context Can be preserved and used in perpetuity

10 Communication Medium Stanisław Jonas Interview Transcript (fragment) Stanisław Jonas: Sometimes, in totally unexpected situations, now that I am in America for instance, when someone asks me if I am Jewish I am quite capable of saying, “No.” Speech Voice quality (volume, pitch, rhythm, accent) Facial expression Eye contact Emotion Intonation Clothing Background, etc. Written Text Video Testimony

11 Global Initiatives Interest in use of testimony in education: Out of 2,238 educators surveyed in Poland, 90% indicated strong interest in using video testimony in a new educational product (2007 national survey – feasibility study for development of new educational product with Polish history teachers and education specialists) Out of 2,783 evaluations collected between August 2006 and March 2008, 98% of Echoes and Reflections teachers rated the video clips “excellent” or “very good.” (Evaluation of Echoes and Reflections, Goodman Research Group; Jan 2007) In a survey with 336 educators in Ukraine, when choosing from a variety of curricular components of the Encountering Memory teacher’s guide (historical references, maps, biographies, etc.), teachers rated video testimonies as the most effective element of their lessons. (Piloting of Encountering Memory; 2007) Creating and distributing educational programs Develop a new generation of web-based educational tools to support educators and inspire students Institute partners create content and foreign-language content can be found on

12 Students respond to the video testimonies 88% of a sample of 155 Echoes and Reflections students polled reported an above-average to excellent impression of the video testimonies. (Evaluation of Echoes and Reflections, Goodman Research Group; Jan 2007) In the same survey, students rated the video testimonies and visual media highest as compared to other curriculum components: over 80% scored these components with either a 4 or a 5 on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 5 as the highest rating).(Evaluation of Echoes and Reflections, Goodman Research Group; Jan 2007) In another survey conducted with students, 41 out of 42 students indicated an interest in learning more by watching Holocaust testimony. (SFI Student Focus Group; Upland High School, Upland, CA, Oct 2008) Global Initiatives Students are seeking out and consuming visual media 57% of online teens* say that they watch videos on video sharing sites such as YouTube. (Pew Internet & American Life/Teens and Social Media; Dec National study. *n=935 parent-child pairs who have access to Internet in their house. 3 in 4 young adult Internet users* watch or download video online. On a typical day, nearly 1 in 3 consumes an online video. (Pew Internet & American Life/Teens and Social Media; Dec National study. *n=935 parent-child pairs)

13 Global Initiatives Increasing access to the archive 20 institutions in the US and abroad have access to the entire archive via Internet2 100 sites in 23 countries have testimony collections Driving academic scholarship More than 100 courses are being taught at I2 sites. Preservation of the testimonies Videotape deteriorates State-of-the-art technology to duplicate testimonies in a digital format Institute will create other copies that can be played on any commercial video player

Stanisław Jonas Born in Warsaw, Poland Interview taken in New York, NY, USA Communication Medium