Shoah Foundation's 10 years of Unprecedented Achievements

Visual History Archive Combats Intolerance Worldwide

Los Angeles, CA - After a decade of remarkable accomplishment, the mission of the Shoah Foundation is as urgent as ever. Since 1994, the Shoah Foundation has not only amassed the largest collection of visual history testimonies in the world, but has shifted its focus to using these testimonies to educate young people about the dangers of bias and intolerance.

"At a moment in history when many of us around the world feel in danger of being overwhelmed by acts of fanaticism and intolerance, Holocaust survivors and other witnesses in the archive have an important and powerful message to share," said Douglas Greenberg, Shoah Foundation president and CEO. "When young people see the faces and hear the voices of men and women who suffered what the rest of us can only imagine, they make the connection between history and the moral choices they confront in their own lives."

Steven Spielberg established the Shoah Foundation after filming Schindler's List, with the urgent goal of videotaping the testimonies of 50,000 Holocaust survivors and witnesses before it was too late. The archive now contains nearly 52,000 videotaped interviews collected in 56 countries and recorded in 32 languages. Having gathered the collection by 2000, the Foundation then adopted a new mission to overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry - and the suffering they cause - through the educational use of the Foundation's visual history testimonies.

Educational Outreach:

In the last three years, the Foundation advanced its mission by expanding its international educational outreach. The Shoah Foundation:

Plans for 2004:

Around the world, the Foundation hopes that people, particularly students, in each of the 56 countries where it collected testimony, will be able to see the face and hear the voice of a survivor or other witness, thereby learning that a more tolerant society is theirs to build. The Foundation will continue to offer outstanding educational products and documentaries, and will work to make visual history a reality, internationally, in classrooms, libraries, and museums.

Plans for 2004 include:

P.O. Box 3168, Los Angeles, CA 90078-3168. Tel: (818) 777-7802, Fax: (818) 866-0312.


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