Review of the Shoah Foundation

By: Brian Freeman

“The Shoah Foundation.” September 04, 2007. Online: http:// www.vhf.org.

The Holocaust was one of the most central events of the twentieth century. During the time of Nazi Germany, under the rule of Hitler, millions of Jews were murdered. This tragic event affected everyone that lived during that time. Although many died, there were also many people who survived this horrific event. The survivors’ stories of prejudice, intolerance, bigotry and suffering are ones that should never be forgotten. In today’s digital age we now have the power and ability to preserve these historical stories of the survivors of the Holocaust so that future generations will always be able to educate themselves on the Holocaust. There are many foundations that preserve these historical testimonies. One such foundation is the Shoah Foundation, which is partnered with one of the strongest educational institutions in America.

The Shoah Foundation, also known as the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, is a non-profit organization. The foundation was originally established by Academy Award winning director Steven Spielberg in 1994, one year after completing the ground breaking Holocaust film Schindler's List. In 1994, the foundation’s original goals were to document the experiences of Holocaust survivors and other witnesses, including those who aided, rescued, and liberated the survivors. In the first six years the foundation collected nearly 52,000 testimonies from fifty-six countries and in thirty two languages. In each testimony, one survivor or witness speaks about his or her life before, during, and after the Holocaust.

The Shoah Foundation partnered with University of Southern California in 2006. Since the partnership the foundation has been slowly making the testimonial videos more accessible to public educators and the general public. The foundation’s website, which is hosted by USC, can be easily accessed by the web address www.vhf.org. On the site there are many pages about the history, future plans, and general frequently asked questions about the foundation. The best part of the website is not text information that it gives but rather the interactive videos and testimonial videos that are displayed. All the available videos are in a QuickTime format which makes them easily accessible to both Windows and Mac users. The videos can be streamed from the website but not downloaded to a computer. The website also allows you to do massive searches on the online archive. The videos the site contains consist of testimonies from survivors of the Nazi death camps. A majority of the videos are accounts from Jewish, handicapped, and homosexual survivors that have been derived from personal interviews with members of The Shoah Foundation. The testimonies have been edited for time purposes and run approximately ten to thirty minutes in length.

In addition to the personal testimonies, the site also contains various interactive videos that include reenactments. One exceptional video, which is produced by Steven Spielberg, is Voices of the Holocaust. It is an interactive web video that can be accessed in the online exhibition portion of the site. Voices of the Holocaust is narrated by a star studded cast featuring Peter Coyote, Elijah Wood, and Natalie Portman. Voices of the Holocaust highlights testimonies from four survivors who were children during the Holocaust. The video allows interaction with the testimonies, while simultaneously exploring historical overviews, archival film footage, a glossary, maps, and survivors’ personal photos.

In conclusion, The Shoah Foundation website is very impressive in its sheer video content and easy to use in design. The promise of more videos and online exhibits in the future gives the site more educational value. The foundation and site has really grown since initial funding from Steven Spielberg in 1994. It now has life beyond the support of a single individual. With the enjoyed partnership of USC, individual donors and corporate donations provide the crucial funding to advance the foundation’s mission and strategic goals. The actions that the foundation are taking will truly be remembered. By digitizing, cataloguing, and indexing those who survived the Holocaust through www.vhf.org ensures that their stories and faces will never be forgotten for years to come.