Dozens of college students conduct research in the Visual History Archive for their thesis projects at the USC Shoah Foundation every year. One student, however, is writing her senior thesis on the Shoah Foundation itself.

Rachel Fidler is a senior at Scripps College in Claremont, Calif., majoring in psychology and sociocultural anthropology. Her senior thesis research project will utilize both qualitative and quantitative research applications to examine Holocaust memorialization and experiences of the Shoah Foundation staff. Fidler is exploring effects on empathy and perspective-taking, mediation devices used by staff in the workplace, and levels of representation and organization within the Institute. The final thesis project will be completed by mid-April.

Fidler said she was interested in the psychology of memorialization and how physical spaces representing survivors and victims of the Holocaust offer an interesting niche in remembrance and dedication – especially because the present youth generation will be the last to be able to meet Holocaust survivors in person.

Talking with a Holocaust survivor is a very visceral experience, Fidler said, and she still remembers very clearly the day in second grade that she spoke with a survivor.

“In continuing this theme, I was curious to understand how various memorial spaces help peoples' stories live on, beyond the lifespan of the individual,” Fidler said. “The Shoah Foundation, with its Visual History Archive, is a very unique and important example in its safeguarding of video conversations with survivors, the vast scope and magnitude of its records, and, what I think is most interesting and important, the ability to look someone in the eye and hear his or her story.”

Fidler was first introduced to the Shoah Foundation in November, when she attended a monthly public tour led by external relations coordinator Krystal Szabo. She was impressed by the vast indexing and cataloguing system that organizes and preserves the testimonies in the Visual History Archive

“The ease of which researchers, students, and the general population can find extremely specific topics mentioned in the survivor interviews is something I have never seen before,” she said.

Fidler plans to interview staff at the Shoah Foundation to learn more about how they interact with the topic in their work life, mediate the often dark subject matter, and impact visitor and researcher experiences. She said she hopes her thesis contributes to the growing research field of memorial museum studies, and how the individual memorial staff experience relates to the larger community that interacts with Holocaust museums and memorial spaces.

“I believe more and more conversations will come about in the near future discussing how to best preserve and share the lives of these people as they pass on,” Fidler said. “This research may shed light on ways certain institutions are addressing this endeavor.”