A $2-million donation to the University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education will assist the organization in beginning work to store video testimonies of Holocaust survivors in a searchable Internet archive that will be available to the public, the foundation announced today.
The gift is from the Viterbi Family Foundation of the Jewish Community Foundation.
The videos and video clips are scheduled to be made available in two years, and a portion of the grant will be devoted to initial research to develop improved online tools for educators. Additional fund raising is needed, Talia Cohen, associate director of public outreach and communication, says.
In the meantime, the Shoah Foundation Institute will use the gift to enhance its Web site and evaluate the needs of students and educators.
Ms. Cohen said the foundation hopes its Web site will become “a destination for education around the world.” The institution’s digital library contains around 52,000 video testimonies in 32 different languages. —David DeBolt
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