In April 1915, the Ottoman government initiated plans to systematically destroy the Armenian population as it existed in the Ottoman empire. Their actions included (but were not limited to) forced displacement, starvation, imprisonment, and the use of the military and proxies to commit mass violence.

USC Shoah Foundation and the Armenian Genocide Museum Institute Foundation (AGMI) in Yerevan have launched a new partnership to develop programming to extend the reach of their collections, research and education initiatives using testimony related to the 1915 Ottoman campaign that murdered 1.5 million Armenians.

Women and children of Kharpert at the banks of the Euphrates in Der Zor on their forced march to Baghdad. The image and story is used in “Politics and Place,” an activity that explores how political ideology can influence policies, people, and eventually memories of a location. Image provided by: Project SAVE Armenian Photograph Archives

USC Shoah Foundation has added 132 testimonies to its Visual History Archive. These firsthand accounts of mass atrocities spanning more than 100 years are now available to researchers, educators, family members, and the public.

‘Dimensions in Testimony Education’ is the first version of the groundbreaking technology available for instruction in classrooms around the world. Teachers and students can ask questions that prompt real-time response from a pre-recorded video of Pinchas—engaging in virtual conversation and redefining inquiry-based education.

In March of 1989, Dr. Sharon Aroian-Poiser traveled to Armenia to help children recover from the trauma of the 6.8 earthquake that crumbled 250 villages and killed tens of thousands of people just a few months before.

But the children, following the lead of the adults around them, remained silent -- until the day Aroian-Poiser pulled out her tape-recorder and demonstrated how it worked.

Almost immediately, the children lined up, and in formal recitation, one after another, told the tape recorder about the day their world collapsed.

The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) will feature full access to the public of the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive (VHA) of over 54,000 testimonies. One of the world’s leading Armenian Studies centers, NAASR advances education and scholarship through supporting and connecting scholars globally and providing outstanding programming to the general public.  NAASR plans to conduct outreach with schools, colleges, libraries, and other institutions in order to spread awareness about the availability of the VHA at NAASR’s headquarters.

It started with a group of students in a Volkswagen van, traveling around Fresno with bulky tape recorders at the behest of their professor.

It became the world’s largest known collection of oral histories from survivors of the 1915 Armenian Genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks.