ERIC Number: EJ1277377
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Feb
Pages: 26
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0018-2745
EISSN: N/A
Grim Expectations: Video Testimony in the College Classroom
Hillman, Susanne
History Teacher, v48 n2 p295-320 Feb 2015
Visual History Archive, or VHA, is the world's largest database of videotaped and digitized Holocaust video testimony. The VHA originated with filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who consulted camp survivors when making his blockbuster film "Schindler's List" in 1993. Inspired by this collaboration, Spielberg went on to establish the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. Over the course of the next several years, volunteers interviewed close to 52,000 survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust worldwide. The result of this massive effort was a digital archive containing hundreds of thousands of hours of filmed footage in thirty-three languages, currently available at fifty institutions on four continents. In 2006, the organization changed its name to USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education. Over the last several years, the Shoah Foundation Institute has become increasingly aware of the unwieldy nature of the archive and the many obstacles standing in the way of widespread use. To expand access, the Foundation created a program called IWitness, an online resource comprising about 1,300 English-language interviews from the VHA geared towards secondary education. Available to any educator worldwide, the program features numerous learning activities and the possibility of creating videos from the available footage. In this article, the author describes her experience with writing assignments based on VHA video testimony in several upper-division history courses taught at UC San Diego and suggests new ways of making use of this magnificent resource.
Descriptors: History Instruction, Archives, Databases, Video Technology, Films, College Students, Jews, Death, War, European History, Personal Narratives, Memory, Empathy, Reflection
Society for History Education. California State University, Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Boulevard, Long Beach, CA 90840-1601. Tel: 562-985-2573; Fax: 562-985-5431; Web site: http://www.societyforhistoryeducation.org/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A