When Michael Hagopian made his first classic acclaimed documentary on the Armenian Genocide in 1975, nominated for two Emmys, he titled the film “The Forgotten Genocide.” Since then decades have passed and hundreds of publications in a variety of languages have been written on the subject. The Armenian Genocide has now taken its rightfully important place within the field of genocide studies. It is not a “forgotten genocide” anymore, despite the existence of a denialist State - Turkey, which has developed denialism into an Industry.
clip, Armenian Series, Armenian Genocide, Nium Sukkar, eyewitness / Friday, April 10, 2015
Stephen Smith and Hayk Demoyan, directors of USC Shoah Foundation and the Armenian Genocide Museum & Institute, respectively, came together today to sign a memorandum of understanding that paves the way for future collaboration between the two organizations.
cagr, Armenian Genocide, armenian film foundation, mou, visual history archive / Friday, April 10, 2015
Julie Picard’s students in Sens, France, may have a future in journalism.
/ Friday, April 10, 2015
Caroline Friend’s journey to becoming the winner of the Student Voices Short Film Contest first began two years ago – when she entered the contest and lost.That didn’t deter her from entering again this year, and her dedication paid off. The jury awarded her film Helen Lewis: A Survivor’s Story first place for the 2015 competition, putting Friend well on her way to her goal of becoming a historical filmmaker.
/ Monday, April 13, 2015
USC Shoah Foundation’s student association, DEFY, is working with other University of Southern California student groups to produce several on-campus events in observation of April’s Human Rights and Genocide Awareness Month.
genocide awareness month, defy, sfisa, usc / Monday, April 13, 2015
The A.I. and Manet Schepps Foundation will fund the three-year, $75,000 initiative for a USC Shoah Foundation teaching fellow and intern at Texas A&M University.
texas, teaching fellow, teaching fellowship, intern / Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Haig Baronian’s testimony touches on two important and interrelated dimensions of the Armenian Genocide: the gendered nature of forms and patterns of violence, and the Islamization and incorporation of Armenian women and children into Muslim households and society.
clip, Haig Baronian, armenian survivor, Armenian Series, Armenian Genocide / Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Professor Roy Schwartzman is proof that you don’t need to be a historian to make full use of the Visual History Archive in teaching and research.
/ Wednesday, April 15, 2015
The murder of extended families, the targeting of community leaders, the critical role of eyewitnesses--each of these factors surfaces in Haigas Bonapart’s interview. These tactics are all too familiar to those of us who study the crime of genocide and the strategies employed by its perpetrators. By destroying communal ties and eliminating those individuals who might rally a group in self-defense, civilians under systematic assault are made much more vulnerable to isolation and mass violence.
clip, male, Armenian Series, Armenian Genocide, armenian survivor / Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Dirouhi Haigas was a young Turkish-Armenian girl of 7 when she and her family were abruptly uprooted from their home and deported on foot to the southern desert. A native of Konya, Turkey, she had lived an idyllic life up to that time with her parents, grandparents, aunt, and uncles. Her father was in the family business as a leather merchant, and her uncles were amateur musicians who loved nothing more than to get together with friends and relatives to enjoy folk music and dancing.  This life came to an abrupt end with the outbreak of World War I.
clip, Armenian Series, Dirouhi Haigas, armenian survivor, Armenian Genocide / Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Doug Ballman, manager of external relations of the online archive at USC Shoah Foundation, paid a visit to North Carolina’s three Visual History Archive access sites earlier this month to receive feedback from librarians and give public presentations about the archive.
vha, visual history archive, north carolina / Wednesday, April 15, 2015
To view the entire Armenian Genocide Testimony Collection, log into the  Visual History Archive Online to explore the full-length eyewitness testimonies.
Armenian Genocide, Armenian Genocide survivor, tcv / Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Music is the purest form of communication. It transcends language and ignores the passage of time. It can be euphoric and elegiac, subtle and sublime. It joyously welcomes life and mournfully greets death. It can provide glimmers of hope and comfort in a world devoid of hope and comfort.
days of remembrance, comcast, Xfinity, op-eds / Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Google Translate is now embedded in the IWitness website, making it possible, for the first time, for non-English speaking users to view the site in their own language.
iwitness / Thursday, April 16, 2015
Henry Rosmarin sings a lullaby that his mother would sing to him as a child. He recalls his mother singing around the house a lot during his youth.
clip, male, jewish survivor, henry rosmarin, music, DOR15 / Thursday, April 16, 2015
Klara Benjamin-Belkin was liberated from Bergen-Belsen in 1945 and after the war she pursued her passion in music and became the principle cellist in a symphony for 20 years. In this testimony clip she plays one of her favorite pieces.
clip, music, jewish survivor, Klara Benjamin-Belkin, DOR15 / Thursday, April 16, 2015
Victor Borge was originally born in Copenhagen, but fled to Sweden once Nazis occupied Denmark during World War II. He managed to escape to the United States in 1940 on one of the last neutral ships leaving Europe. While in the U.S, Borge went on to become a famous comedian, conductor, and pianist. In this clip, he is playing a lullaby written by one of his father’s friends.
clip, male, jewish surivor, victor borge, DOR15, music / Thursday, April 16, 2015
Anita Lasker Wallfisch recalls how she came to be the cellist in the female orchestra in Auschwitz. She talks extensively about the orchestra's conductor and music instructor, Alma, painting her in a positive light.
Wallfisch, Anita, jewish survivor, music / Thursday, April 16, 2015
"Notes of Survival" provides a powerful introduction to the rest of the content in Days of Remembrance: PastFORWARD.
comcast, musical performance / Friday, April 17, 2015
Watch Henry Rosmarin’s full testimony from the Visual History Archive as part of Comcast’s Days of Remembrance: PastFORWARD broadcast April 15-June 1, 2015. The sound of a harmonica usually brings to mind playfulness, joy, a sense of merriment. For Henry Rosmarin, it is also conjures the darkest chapter of his life, when his talent for music earned him favor with a Nazi commandant and kept him alive in a German concentration camp.
/ Friday, April 17, 2015
Levon Giridlian was born in Ottoman Empire, in Kayseri (Armenian: Kesaria) in the region of Cappadocia. Kayseri had once been a major Christian center, as attested by the numerous chapels hewn into the mountainous terrain. Although not a part of the historic Armenian highlands to the east, the county of Kayseri at the end of the nineteenth century had about 70,000 Armenian inhabitants, active in agriculture, the crafts and trades, and, among them, a significant number of regional and international merchants.
Armenian Series, clip, Levon Giridlian, Armenian Genocide, armenian survivor / Friday, April 17, 2015
Wolf Dieter Bihl is a famous Austrian historian, with a number of published works on Austria-Hungary and the First World War. In this clip, he is touching upon two important issues pertaining to the history of the Armenian Genocide. The first is his assertion that representatives of the allies of the Ottoman Empire during the war, i.e. that other Central Powers, and Germany and Austria-Hungary in particular, reported extensively in their internal, confidential correspondence that what the Young Turk government was up to was actually a determined attempt to exterminate the Armenian race.
clip, male, scholar, historian, Armenian Genocide, Armenian Series / Friday, April 17, 2015
This brief clip reveals a number of significant points about the early stage of the Armenian Genocide (spring-summer 1915) in many areas. The first is that although one reads in memoirs and accounts of Armenians who were expecting “something bad to happen,” many, if not most, Armenian villagers believed that they were going to be relocated in a peaceful manner.
clip, male, Armenian Series, Armenian Genocide / Friday, April 17, 2015
Judith Goldstein recalls music that was composed in the ghetto. She attended a music conservatory and remembers an older student composing a song. She then performs the Yiddish song on the guitar. She has translated one verse into English.
clip, judith goldstein, days of remembrance, DOR15 / Friday, April 17, 2015
Alice Herz Sommer recalls life after the Holocaust. She discusses how she reached out to her sisters. In order to prove she was still alive, she wrote asking that they listen to her play the piano on the radio. Her sister would talk about the experience for the rest of her life.
clip, music, female, alice sommer, DOR15 / Friday, April 17, 2015
Paula Lebovics remembers arriving to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Upon arrival she was asked to sing for everyone in her block. She was nervous, but felt obliged to do so. Luckily for Paula, everyone loved her voice and afterwards she was given special privileges. She remembers getting extra rations of food that she would take back to her mother.
clip, female, jewish survivor, Paula Lebovics, DOR15 / Friday, April 17, 2015
Roman Kent talks about the songs he would sing for resistance in camps and how these songs create a sense of community.
clip, male, jewish survivor, roman kent, DOR15 / Friday, April 17, 2015
Kurt Messerschmidt passionatley sings a song from his childhood.
clip, male, jewish surivor, Kurt Messerschmidt, music / Friday, April 17, 2015

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