HOLOCAUST HISTORY GROUP BROADENS MISSION TO ADDRESS OTHER ATROCITIES
Chronicle of Philanthropy
Nov 17 2011
The Shoah Foundation, founded by filmmaker Steven Spielberg to record
Holocaust survivors~R recollections, has begun expanding its scope to
include other mass killings, writes The New York Times.
The organization, now based at the University of Southern California
and formally known as the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual
History and Education, has focused exclusively on archiving personal
testimonies of Nazi atrocities since its launch in 1994.
The foundation has begun collecting testimonies of the genocide in
Rwanda and will soon begin adding accounts of mass killings of
Armenians and Cambodians to its archive. ~SIt~Rs important to be able to
hear the voices of those who have experienced genocide in a variety of
circumstances over the last hundred years,~T said Stephen D. Smith, the
foundation~Rs executive director.
The broader mission puts the foundation in the middle of a contentious
debate among historians and Jewish groups, with some scholars
contending that the Holocaust was unique and should be held distinct
from other atrocities.
From: A. Papazian