(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., September 20, 2021) – The University Library at California State University Northridge (CSUN) recently purchased the USC Shoah Foundation Institute Visual History Archive, a fully streaming video collection of more than 53,000 primary source testimonies of Holocaust survivors and witnesses, in addition to other crimes against humanity, including the Armenian Genocide, Tutsi Genocide, Nanjing Massacre, and the Guatemalan Genocide.
The USC Shoah Foundation describes the Visual History Archive as “the largest digital collection of its kind in the world. It preserves history as told by the people who lived it. Each testimony is a unique source of insight and knowledge, offering powerful stories from history that demand to be explored and shared. In this way we will be able to see their faces and hear their voices, allowing each of them to teach and inspire action against intolerance.”
This extraordinary acquisition was made possible through the generosity of passionate CSUN donors, Steve Hitter and the Hitter Family Foundation, and Susan and Mitch Golant. Additional support was provided by the CSUN College of Humanities, the Armenian Studies Program, and the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences.
Lynn Lampert, Jewish Studies and History Librarian, shared the following: "I am so pleased that our University Library was able to acquire access to the USC Shoah Foundation Institute Visual History Archive (VHA). Now CSUN students from across our disciplines of study will be able to access its powerful collection of testimonies that provide firsthand accountings of the Holocaust, Armenian Genocide, and other atrocities that have occurred in history. In my undergraduate and graduate studies, I was very fortunate to be able to personally meet, listen to and study with Holocaust survivors who generously recounted their own horrific experiences in my classrooms. Now sadly so many of those survivors are passing away.”
Lampert added that “This database offers us unprecedented access to hear all their stories for generations to come. I know that for many survivors, sharing their testimonies was extremely painful. Many were solely motivated to recount their stories for the Shoah Foundation project so that future students would be able to listen to them. Our acquisition of this database supports CSUN students’ primary source information needs when researching genocide, while simultaneously allowing our community to fulfill the participating survivors’ wishes that we ‘never forget’ that the atrocities they experienced were real so we might collectively remember to act if needed again to stop future genocides."
CSUN students, faculty, and staff have full access to the Shoah collection. Visitors to CSUN can also search the database from the University Library or anywhere on campus.
Mark Stover, Dean of the University Library, stated that “The Shoah Visual History Archive is the largest and perhaps the most important streaming video database documenting genocide in existence today. Given the multiple academic programs that CSUN offers which deal directly with the tragic history of genocide, it was critical that we in the Library find the funding to purchase this resource. VHA will play a significant role in many courses offered at CSUN, and will help students and faculty alike come to an increased understanding of why genocide occurs and how it can be prevented in the future.”
The University Library is the intellectual heart of CSUN, serving the educational needs of more than 38,000 students and investing in an information infrastructure that fosters critical thinking, information competence, innovation and discovery, and knowledge creation.