Shoah Foundation Establishes Presence in Hungary

Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation has added Hungary to the list of countries in which eyewitness testimonies have been recorded for its Archive. The Foundation, established in 1994 by Steven Spielberg after filming Schindler's List, is videotaping the testimonies of Holocaust survivors and other witnesses around the world. Since its founding, the Shoah Foundation has developed a multimedia Archive of Holocaust survivor and other eyewitness testimonies to be used as a powerful educational and research tool in promoting tolerance education for present and future generations. The Archive is comprised of testimonies from 57 countries and in 31 languages.

Having opened an office in Budapest last year, "the Shoah Foundation recognizes the importance of devoting the appropriate energy towards recording the Hungarian experience. In Hungary, our current resources will allow us to record at least several hundred testimonies," said Anya Verkhovskaya, Regional Manager, Eastern European Department at the Shoah Foundation's headquarters in Los Angeles.

To date, the Foundation has interviewed more than 3,500 Hungarian survivors worldwide, with more than 500 of these accounts recorded in the Hungarian language.