Visual History Archive of the USC Shoah Foundation

As we approach January 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the University Libraries are pleased to announce that we are now an access site for the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive. Washington University in St. Louis is the only access site in Missouri for this essential database of genocide testimonies. 

The Visual History Archive started in 1994 with the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, founded by Steven Spielberg to videotape testimonies of Holocaust survivors and witnesses. In 2006, with nearly 52,000 testimonies in its archive, the foundation became part of the University of Southern California and was renamed the USC Shoah Foundation. Soon it expanded its scope to include other genocides.

Anika Walke, associate professor of history at Washington University, was one of many who advocated for the purchase of the database, noting its importance to her research on the Holocaust, particularly in her book Pioneers and Partisans: An Oral History of Nazi Genocide in Belorussia.

Walke added, “The Visual History Archive is becoming increasingly relevant and interesting for scholars focused on other genocides as well, as the archive is expanding and now includes, among others, collections of interviews with survivors of the Armenian Genocide, the genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Guatemala, and the war and genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina.” The testimonies from the latter genocide are particularly relevant for the St. Louis metro area with its large Bosnian community. 

Funding to acquire this database came in part from the Whitney R. Harris Third Reich Collection fund, which was established in 1980 thanks to a generous donation from Whitney R. Harris, who played a key role in prosecuting Nazi war criminals during the Nuremberg trials in 1945-1946. Recent books bought on the fund can be viewed in the Jane and Whitney Harris Reading Room on Level 2 of Olin Library. Thanks to this endowment the University Libraries have a deep collection of books and other resources related to the history of the Third Reich and the atrocities it committed.   

Use of the Visual History Archive is available onsite and remotely for current WashU faculty, students, and staff. Researchers outside of the university are welcome to visit Olin Library and obtain temporary credentials to access it on our public computers. See our visitor policies for help planning your visit.

For more information and questions, please contact Walter Schlect at wschlect@wustl.edu.