USF Libraries access to Shoah Foundation Institute Visual History Archive

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The University of South Florida Libraries subscribe to the USC Shoah Foundation Institute's Visual History Archive.

The Archive preserves and provides access to personal experiences of the Holocaust through survivor's first-hand accounts.

With a collection of nearly 52,000 video testimonies in 32 languages and from 56 countries, the USC Shoah Foundation Institute’s archive is the largest visual history archive in the world. The Institute interviewed Jewish survivors, homosexual survivors, Jehovah’s Witness survivors, liberators and liberation witnesses, political prisoners, rescuers and aid providers, Roma and Sinti survivors (Gypsy), survivors of Eugenics policies, and war crimes trials participants. More about the Institute »

USF Libraries' acquisition of these resources is the first part of a collection initiative focusing on Holocaust and genocide studies. In the near future, this page will be accessed through a Genocide Studies Collection portal page from USF Libraries home page at: www.lib.usf.edu.

HOW TO ACCESS THE TESTIMONIES: Technical Requirements

You must be on a USF campus or connected by VPN

TO ACCESS THIS ARCHIVE, YOU MUST EITHER USE VPN OR BE ON A USF CAMPUS. Authentication through Blackboard will not work.

CLICK HERE FOR VPN INSTRUCTIONS.

The testimonies are playable within the Windows 2000, XP, or Vista operating systems using Firefox or Internet Explorer 6 or higher. The testimonies are now also viewable on Macintosh using Safari. Firefox for the Mac does not work. See the official user manual for details.
Windows Media Player 9 or higher must be installed
You should have reliable, high-speed Internet access
You must register on the Archive website the first time you access this resource
For additional guidance, consult the Visual History Archive User Manual (PDF) »

University of South Florida access to the Shoah Foundation Institute's Visual History Archive

If you cannot meet the above criteria but would like to sample the Archive testimonials, please visit: http://college.usc.edu/vhi/otv/otv.php

More about the Shoah Foundation Institute
The Shoah Foundation Institute is part of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences at the University of Southern California. The Institute’s mission is to overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry–and the suffering they cause–through the educational use of the Institute's visual history testimonies. The Institute relies upon partnerships in the United States and around the world to provide public access to the archive and advance scholarship in many fields of inquiry. The Institute and its partners also utilize the archive to develop educational products and programs for use in many countries and languages.

Macintosh Users:

Searching the Visual History Archive (VHA) of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute : Basic information and tips
The complete VHA User guide is available here.

500 of the 52,000 interviews are available for immediate viewing
After results are displayed, use the “Sort by” drop down box and choose “Video Availability” to view those that are available for immediate viewing. Available videos are indicated by “Viewable Now”
For videos that indicate, “Viewable w/i 48 Hrs”, you must make a request to transfer the video to you. To do this, click on the video image and then on the next screen, Request Video. Transfers may take up to 48 hours. You will receive an email indicating when the video is available

Each interview is approximately 2.5 hours in length. Each interview is separated into taped segments of 30 minutes

Any photographs or documents shared by the interviewee are available on the last taped segment at the end of the interview
Click on Slide Show on the right hand side to see photos of the interviewee and any document and/or photographs which were part of the interview. This feature is available immediately for all testimonies

Interviews have been conducted in 26 different languages. Many of the interviews are in languages other than English. Translations are not provided

Right-click on your mouse to ZOOM and display the video full-screen

Searching

Use keywords (i.e., Auschwitz, ghetto, hunger, etc.) and link terms together with “and”, “or” to expand the search

Enter last name and first initial of first name

Choose one category (i.e., Jewish survivors, Political prisoners)
Select more categories to narrow search

Use keyword choices to build your search. Click to expand bold keyword categories to further refine your search. The “Definition” box in the upper right hand corner indicates how many interviews use the keyword you selected. Add or remove keywords in the lower boxes
After sorting for “Viewable Now”, click on the name of the interviewee and you can listen to the segment when the keyword you selected was mentioned by the interviewee. For example, if you select “hiding” and sort by “Viewable Now” you will be placed directly into the part of the testimony during which the interviewee discusses or mentions the topic, “hiding”

Use the Global Keyword Search categories and definitions to guide you to find specific experiences. Global Keyword Search will help you identify specific references to experiences within segments of the taped testimonies
Use print and online encyclopedias (Encyclopedia of the Holocaust- REF D 804.3 .E53 1990, Columbia Guide to the Holocaust etc.) and authoritative web sites (i.e., U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum [http://www.ushmm.org/]) to understand the proper spelling of concentration camp names, social and economic issues, and historical data to get the best results from the database