Director Steven Spielberg founded Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation in 1994 to videotape and preserve interviews with Holocaust survivors.
By 2001, we had collected 52,000 testimonies. Our Visual History Archive now contains almost 57,000 searchable testimonies, the largest such collection in the world.
We started digitizing our collection in 2008 and we constantly update our preservation systems. We hold 12 patents on digital collection management technologies that we developed.
In 2023, users viewed 223 million minutes of testimony across all our platforms, including our Visual History Archive, YouTube channel, website, and IWitness educational platform.
In January 2006, the Shoah Foundation moved from Universal Studios to the USC campus in Los Angeles, joining the vibrant and engaged community of faculty, researchers, and students. In 2023, we opened offices at USC’s Washington, D.C., campus.
Expanding Research Horizons
Researchers, students, journalists, policymakers, storytellers, and the public turn to our Visual History Archive to enrich and expand their understanding of history. With its wealth of testimonies, tools, and resources, the archive is vital for deepening knowledge and fostering meaningful insights.
A walk through our history, from VHS tapes in the backlots of Universal Studios to our state-the-art technology center and elegant headquarters at USC.
USC Shoah Foundation - Institut pro vizuální historii a vzdělávání v létě zahájil první ročník expertního mezinárodního vzdělávacího programu pro učitele v Evropě, nazvaného "Svědectví pamětníků ve výuce pro 21. století". Program je zaměřen na vzdělávací využití téměř 52 000 svědectví pamětníků holocaustu a dalších svědků uchovávaných v archivu Institutu. Read More
Professional development program culminates in best practices workshop for teachers
From August 1-3, the USC Shoah Foundation-The Institute for Visual History and Education held a best practices workshop for graduates of the Master Teacher Program, a professional development program for educators that centers on the classroom use of Holocaust- and genocide-eyewitness testimony. Read More
In July 2012, the USC Shoah Foundation Institute convened the inaugural workshop of “Teaching with Testimony for the 21st Century,” a professional development program for teachers in Europe centered on the educational use of Holocaust eyewitness testimony.
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BALTIMORE, MARYLAND—Echoes and Reflections, a groundbreaking multimedia curriculum on the Holocaust, has been honored for its use of visual history testimony and its educat Read More
The Jackson-Hinds Library System and Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation present the Testimony to Tolerance Initiative, a program designed to equip the community of Jackson, Mississippi, with the tools it needs to nurture responsible and committed citizens dedicated to a society free of prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry. Read More
