Videos by Topic
DonateVoting
A series of clips featuring survivors recalling the difficulties of voting before and during the war in Europe and how it impacted their appreciation of the importance of participating in the democratic process.
Peter Wagner on Discussing the Election at School
Language: English
Holocaust survivor Peter Wagner remembers the results of the 1932 presidential election, in which a very small minority of his elementary school classmates claimed that their parents voted for Hitler.
Peter Wagner on Discussing the Election at School
Language: English
Holocaust survivor Peter Wagner remembers the results of the 1932 presidential election, in which a very small minority of his elementary school classmates claimed that their parents voted for Hitler.
Victor Fish on Defiance at the Ballot
Language: English
Holocaust survivor Victor Fish recalls being forced to vote for the plebiscite that would decide whether or not Poland was to join the Soviet Union.
Erika Fromm on Extreme Polling Conditions in Germany
Language: English
Holocaust survivor Erika Fromm describes the extreme conditions at the polls during the 1933 federal election in Germany, the first election in which she was old enough to vote.
Irma Broclawski on Voting Against Communism
Language: English
Holocaust survivor Irma Broclawski recalls voting three times against the Communist regime with her uncle in Krakow, Poland.
Manfred Steinfeld on Why Germans Voted for Hitler
Language: English
Holocaust survivor Manfred Steinfeld explains the fear that drove German Jews to vote for Hitler in the 1935 presidential election.
Gloria Lachman on the Importance of Democratic Voting
Language: English
Holocaust survivor Gloria Lachman remembers Nazi soldiers appearing at her house and physically forcing her grandmother to vote for Hitler, an experience that caused her to deeply value the right to vote.
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A series of clips featuring survivors recalling the difficulties of voting before and during the war in Europe and how it impacted their appreciation of the importance of participating in the democratic process.
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A collection of Jewish survivors and other eyewitnesses to the Holocaust describe watching the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. In preparation for the start of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, the Nazis in power decided to minimize the presence of anti-Semitism in the city.
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USC Shoah Foundation presents 24 stories of genocide survivors who recall their experiences as refugees in their testimonies preserved in the Visual History Archive. Each clip of testimony to inspire, inform and shed light on the impact of war, genocide and massacre forcing individuals from their homes.
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A collection of testimony clips from WWII liberators who served in the United States Armed Forces.
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From April to July 1994, one of the most brutal genocides in human history occurred in Rwanda. It claimed the lives of 800,000 men, women, and children, most of whom were of Tutsi descent. Kwibuka, the official anniversary of the Rwandan Tutsi Genocide, is observed every year on April 7. Explore this selection of testimony clips of survivors and eyewitnesses to the genocide from the Visual History Archive.
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At the end of each interview the Institute recorded for the Archive, the interviewer would ask the interviewee if he or she had a special message for future generations watching the interview. The survivors and other witnesses often spoken about such themes as forgiveness, the importance of individual action, and the need to teach children tolerance. Here are a few messages from the Institute's Archive.
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Several people responded to active discrimination by helping the victims in different ways. This is a collection of clips highlighting testimony from survivors and aid givers themselves. One question that sometimes emerges in these clips is "what made you stand up to discrimination and racial intolerance?"
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A series of clips from survivors speaking about their experiences with personal as well as institutional forms of discrimination. These clips include testimonies from the European Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide, and the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda collections.
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A collection of clips from the Institute Archive that focus on interviewees describing particular feelings and emotions they experienced, such as fear, gratitude, and attitudes about others.
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Possibly the most well-known example of these rescue operations involved individual British families agreeing to “host” children from Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic through a program known as Kindertransport. Through this program, organized by Sir Nicholas Winton, an estimated 10,000 refugee children, most of them Jewish, were housed in the United Kingdom during the war. These children were able to avoid ghettoization and camp experiences; in many cases, they were the only members of their families to survive the Holocaust.