Participants in the 2009 Master Teacher Workshop speak about their experience working with the Visual History Archive, testimonies from which they will incorporate into  multimedia lessons that they will pilot in their classrooms this school year.

Ivana Hajičová is the head of the English Department at Archbishop High School in Prague, Czech Republic. She holds a master’s degree in English and Spanish for Translating and Interpreting from the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, in Prague. She also has a master’s degree in Applied Ethics from the Catholic Theological Faculty, Charles University. Although she originally started her career as a formal linguist at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, CU, she has taught English for over 20 years to high school as well as university students.

As part of the USC School of Cinematic Arts Visible Evidence XVI Conference, the USC Shoah Foundation Institute hosted a panel discussion and audience participatory Q&A session on issues related to conducting interviews with genocide survivors for use in documentary film and what happens to the body of footage after its initial use.The participants were (alphabetical order): Anne Aghion (NYC), Ted Braun (LA), Andi Gitow (Panel Moderator) (NYC), James Moll (LA), Socheata Poeuv (New Haven).

Abraham Zuckerman was in the Krakau-Plaszów concentration camp outside Krakow, Poland, when he was selected to work in Oskar Schindler’s factory. Zuckerman had no idea who Schindler was or that his own fate had just taken a turn for the better. He expresses his gratitude to Schindler for that life-saving opportunity. Zuckerman’s testimony is featured in Testimony – The Legacy of Schindler’s List and the USC Shoah Foundation.

On the day the Visual History Archive access site in Prague - the Malach Center for Visual History - was inaugurated I decided that my school, Archbishop High School in Prague, could not ignore it. However, I was not able to think of a way how to organically incorporate it in teaching English, which is my job. My chance came only recently.

Delegates from IBUKA sat down to speak with the Institute about the importance of documenting survivor testimony and the role it plays in Rwanda. Featured in this short compilation are Freddy Mutanguha, Benoit Kaboyi, François-Xavier Ngarambe, Théodore Simburudali, and filmmaker Eric Kabera.

Vera Gissing remembers her parents decision to send her and her sister Eva on the Kindertransport from Czechoslovakia to England in May 1939. She also describes their farewell at the train station in Prague and the journey to England. Vera’s testimony is featured in Testimony – The Legacy of Schindler’s List and the USC Shoah Foundation.