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Find Articles: Indexes and Databases:
Visual History Archive (VHA)
Unrestricted Access |
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- Connection note
- Rutgers users needing access from off campus
should go to this link, but anyone may use the database from a campus computer. A one-time
registration, separate from any Rutgers accounts, is required, and it allows users to save searches
and projects. The e-mail address registered need not be on the Rutgers domain.
- Alternate title
- USC Shoah Foundation Institute's Visual History Archive
- Browser required
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Windows users who use Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or later can access the
system without having to install any other software. However, Firefox users
will need to install the Windows Media Player plug-in on their system in order
to view the videos and slide shows.
Macintosh users must be running OS X version 10.4 or higher and have Quicktime 7
or newer installed as well as the Flip4Mac WMV Components for Quicktime. They
must also have Safari 3 or higher.
- Plugins required
- Flip4Mac; QuickTime; Windows Media Player
- Description
- The USC Shoah Foundation Institute's Visual History Archive contains nearly 52,000 video
testimonies in 32 languages (without subtitles) from 56 countries. The Institute interviewed Jewish
survivors (49,400 out of the total) and other persons with experience of the Holocaust. Each
interview consists of a single witness speaking about his or her life before, during, and after
World War II, guided by questions from a trained interviewer. The interviews average two and a half
hours in length, including a display of materials, such as photos, supplied by the interviewee that
are explained by him or her. All names (1.5 million total) and place names mentioned in the
testimonies (cross-listed with variant name forms) are linked in the search engine to segments (a
minute in length) in individual testimonies that can then be viewed. Users can also select
from a pick-list of subject headings (keywords) to select testimony segments for retrieval, filter
their searches by language, gender, and experience group, and create their own sub-collection of
testimonies called projects. Biographical searches can be limited by the name, gender, and the
date, city, and country of birth of the interviewee as well as by the state and country in which the
interview was held and the language and length of the
interview.
A freely available supplementary Testimony Catalogue provides
many of the same search capabilities. Users who don't have access from off campus can use this
search tool to save viewing time while they're on campus by going directly to the interviews that
interest them.
Click here to reserve testimonies needed for your
project so that they cannot be removed from the cache. Roughly 5% of all testimonies are
available immediately, and any of the others can be requested through the database for viewing
within 48 hours.
- Help
- The database contains its own Help pages with FAQs at http://vha.rutgers.edu/faqs.html
- Dates covered
- The period 1939-45 is the chief focus, but interviews typically begin and end ten or more years
before and after the war
- Updating frequency
- Database is complete.
- Sources
- 52,000 original testimonies conducted by 2300 trained interviewers in more than 50 countries.
- Type of coverage
- Video, locally cached by the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences.
- Print counterpart or related resources
- None.
- Producer/content provider
- USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education
- Vendor/electronic presentation provider
- USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education
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