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ARMENIAN GENOCIDE SURVIVORS TO JOIN SHOAH FOUNDATION
Annenberg TV News
http://www.atvn.org/news/2012/04/armenian-genocide-survivors-join-shoah-foundation
April 3 2012
CA
Shoah Foundation will archive testimonies from Armenian Genocide
survivors.
In 1939, Adolf Hitler asked, "Who, after all, speaks today of the
annihilation of the Armenians?"
That question will be answered Tuesday as the voices of Armenians
who survived Hitler's genocide will join the testimonies of those
who survived the Holocaust, as part of the collaboration between the
Shoah Foundation Institute and the USC Institute of Armenian Studies
Leadership Council.
"These testimonies exist because [the survivors] wanted the world to
know that this happened," said Stephen Smith, executive director for
the Shoah Foundation Institute at USC.
The Shoah Foundation Institute was founded in 1994 by Steven
Spielberg. The Foundation focuses on digitizing the 52,00 testimonies
of Holocaust survivors for the public to see first-hand.
The Shoah Foundation is continuing this legacy by adding 400 films
made by Armenian filmmaker J. Michael Hagopian, who was forced to
hide in a well after Turkish soldiers raided his village as a small
boy. He then migrated from Armenia to the United States to create
films recording the experiences of Genocide survivors.
Carla Garapedian, a filmmaker leading the Armenian Film Foundation's
efforts to digitize the Genocide victims' testimonies, called the
availability of the accounts significant. "This is the first time
that the Armenian Genocide interviews will be made available on such
a wide network, so that universities around the world will be able
to access them," Garapedian said. "This is an important movement
in terms of educating the public, from the point of view survivors
and witnesses...In understanding genocide in that comparative way,
we may be able to prevent it."
According to the Genocide survivors, the killings involved the
systematic cleansing of Christians, which included Assyrians and
Pontic Greeks, however both the United States and Turkey refused to
call it a genocide due to the political nature of the word.
Still, the Shoah Foundation will hold a gala and fundraiser on April
15th with the USC Institute of Armenian Studies' Leadership Council
to honor Hagopian and his films. "I'm delighted that the Armenian
community trusts us with their personal community legacy," said Smith.
"Trust is the first step. When you don't trust, that's the breeding
ground for bigotry, prejudice, and intolerance."
Annenberg TV News
http://www.atvn.org/news/2012/04/armenian-genocide-survivors-join-shoah-foundation
April 3 2012
CA
Shoah Foundation will archive testimonies from Armenian Genocide
survivors.
In 1939, Adolf Hitler asked, "Who, after all, speaks today of the
annihilation of the Armenians?"
That question will be answered Tuesday as the voices of Armenians
who survived Hitler's genocide will join the testimonies of those
who survived the Holocaust, as part of the collaboration between the
Shoah Foundation Institute and the USC Institute of Armenian Studies
Leadership Council.
"These testimonies exist because [the survivors] wanted the world to
know that this happened," said Stephen Smith, executive director for
the Shoah Foundation Institute at USC.
The Shoah Foundation Institute was founded in 1994 by Steven
Spielberg. The Foundation focuses on digitizing the 52,00 testimonies
of Holocaust survivors for the public to see first-hand.
The Shoah Foundation is continuing this legacy by adding 400 films
made by Armenian filmmaker J. Michael Hagopian, who was forced to
hide in a well after Turkish soldiers raided his village as a small
boy. He then migrated from Armenia to the United States to create
films recording the experiences of Genocide survivors.
Carla Garapedian, a filmmaker leading the Armenian Film Foundation's
efforts to digitize the Genocide victims' testimonies, called the
availability of the accounts significant. "This is the first time
that the Armenian Genocide interviews will be made available on such
a wide network, so that universities around the world will be able
to access them," Garapedian said. "This is an important movement
in terms of educating the public, from the point of view survivors
and witnesses...In understanding genocide in that comparative way,
we may be able to prevent it."
According to the Genocide survivors, the killings involved the
systematic cleansing of Christians, which included Assyrians and
Pontic Greeks, however both the United States and Turkey refused to
call it a genocide due to the political nature of the word.
Still, the Shoah Foundation will hold a gala and fundraiser on April
15th with the USC Institute of Armenian Studies' Leadership Council
to honor Hagopian and his films. "I'm delighted that the Armenian
community trusts us with their personal community legacy," said Smith.
"Trust is the first step. When you don't trust, that's the breeding
ground for bigotry, prejudice, and intolerance."