Shoah Foundation Opens Two National European Visual History Collections

Returning Testimonies to Italy and France Commemorates International “Day of Memory”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 25, 2005

Contact
Janet Keller
818/777-4999
janetk@vhf.org

Los Angeles; January 25, 2005 - To commemorate the International Day of Memory that marks the 60 th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Shoah Foundation will open two national European Visual History Collections of videotaped interviews with Holocaust survivors and other witnesses. The Archivio Centrale dello Stato (Central State Archive) in Rome, and the Centre de documentation juive contemporaine (CDJC) in Paris will house the Italian and French Collections respectively.

The opening of these visual history collections is an historic milestone in the ten-year history of the Shoah Foundation. According to Founding Chairman, Steven Spielberg, “The launching of these collections in Paris and Rome is the realization of a decade-long goal. It is particularly moving that these collections are opening at the same time we commemorate the 60 th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.”

The Shoah Foundation’s archive of nearly 52,000 eyewitness testimonies is the largest collection of videotaped Holocaust testimonies in the world, and includes 11,565 t estimonies of people who survived Auschwitz. The Italian Visual History Collection of 400 testimonies includes testimonies of 52 survivors of Auschwitz, and in the French Visual History Collection, 375 of 1800 survivors and witnesses share the experience of surviving Auschwitz .

The varied experiences of survivors and other witnesses in the Italian and French collections represent the breadth of the Shoah Foundation archive. Jewish, Sinti and Roma, Homosexual, and Jehovah’s Witness survivors, political prisoners, rescuers and aid providers, and war crimes trials participants all offer recollections of their lives before, during, and after the war.

“The Shoah Foundation has a responsibility to return the testimonies to the countries whose history they document, and to offer an opportunity for a better future by providing access to the unique and personal narratives of survivors and witnesses from each country," said Douglas Greenberg, Shoah Foundation president and CEO. “When the Shoah Foundation first went to Italy and to France to record the testimonies, we were embraced by overwhelming numbers of volunteers from all over those countries eager to embark on this task with us. Today, as the testimonies are returned to these countries, we mark the culmination of that cooperative effort, and continue to move forward, inspired by the passionate commitment of educators, archivists, and government agencies to bring the testimonies to people throughout Europe, “ he continued.

About the Shoah Foundation
In 1994, after filming Schindler’s List, Steven Spielberg established Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation to videotape and preserve testimonies of Holocaust survivors and other witnesses before it was too late. Having collected nearly 52,000 videotaped testimonies in 56 countries and 32 languages, the mission of the Shoah Foundation today is to overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry—and the suffering they cause—through the educational use of the Foundation’s visual history testimonies.

The Shoah Foundation is now developing global partnerships to achieve three strategic goals: to preserve and provide access to the archive; to build and support educational programs; and to develop educational products based on the Foundation’s testimonies.

For information about the Shoah Foundation, visit www.vhf.org.