With an ambitious slate of visiting scholars, academic events, educational programs and trips to faraway places, the staff of USC Shoah Foundation tends to be a busy lot.In order to share these interesting goings-on with people around the world, the Institute updates its website daily with news stories and profiles of some of the people who pass through its doors.The job to chronicle these events for the outside world falls to one person.

The 53,000 testimonies in the Visual History Archive from the USC Shoah Foundation tell a complete personal history of life before, during and after the interviewee’s firsthand experience with genocide. These testimonies are an invaluable resource for humanity, as in addition to their experience through some of the darkest chapters of human history; the testimonies also recount happy memories of childhood and successes in life including careers, children and grandchildren. 

Steve Kay, dean of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, believe that the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive holds many keys to unlocking the enigmatic conditions that have led to genocides throughout history.