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SHOAH FOUNDATION PARTNERS WITH GENOCIDE MUSEUM
Daily Trojan: University of Southern California
April 14, 2015 Tuesday
Stephen Smith, director of USC Shoah Foundation, and Hayk Demoyan,
director of the Armenian Genocide Museum & Institute, signed a
memorandum of understanding on Friday that marks the beginning of a
new collaborative partnership between the two groups.
Sixty testimonies from survivors and witnesses of the Armenian genocide
will begin to be integrated into the Shoah Foundation's Visual History
Archive by April 24, when both the USC Shoah Foundation and Armenian
Genocide Museum & Institute will mark the 100-year anniversary of
the Armenian genocide, which took place from 1915 until 1922 at the
hands of the Ottoman Turkish government. These testimonies are a part
of the Armenian Film Foundation's collection, recorded by filmmaker
J. Michael Hagopian.
The memorandum of understanding will bring the Shoah Foundation's
Visual History Archive containing video testimonies of genocide
survivors to the museum in Armenia. The agreement will create
opportunities for education and research collaboration between the
two organizations on initiatives related to the Armenian genocide.
This new collaboration comes at an appropriate time, as April is
International Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month. The Visual
History Archive is an online portal that currently gives users access
to over 52,000 audio-visual testimonies of international genocide
survivors, in 39 different languages. In the past year, the Visual
History Archive added testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the
1994 Rwandan Tutsi genocide and from the 1937 Nanjing Massacre.
"It opens up a whole new geography for access and collaboration,
given that we're bringing in the Armenian genocide testimonies into the
archives and working with the museum to have the archives accessible,"
said Karen Jungblut, the Shoah Foundation's director of research and
documentation. "It seemed like a logical extension for the museum to
learn more about what we were doing here ... it was an easily aligned
mission to bring these materials and testimonies of survivors to an
audience in Armenia as well as in the U.S."
Located in Yerevan, Armenia, the Armenian Genocide Museum & Institute,
part of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia,
serves as a research and humanitarian body, documenting all materials
related to the Armenian genocide and making them accessible to
the general public. The museum includes maps, eyewitness accounts,
artifacts and other documentation of the genocide during which 1.5
million Armenians were killed.
"We are deeply dedicated to ensuring that those testimonies collected
by J. Michael Hagopian over those many decades find their voice[s]
in the world. There is no better or more appropriate place to do
that than in Yerevan itself," Smith said. "It's a place of memory,
a place where history emanates from, and, through your leadership,
ensures that research and education, which are the fundamentals of
our institute too, really ground these testimonies in the world."
Demoyan said that the collaboration between the two groups marks
an important push to pay tribute to those affected by the Armenian
genocide.
"This will not stay on the paper ... our signatures are triggering
something important, triggering the process of research, preservation,
study and cooperation," Demoyan said.
Demoyan also serves as executive secretary of the state commission
and is coordinating international efforts to commemorate the Armenian
genocide this year.
Jungblut hopes that the two organizations will continue to engage in
an exchange of materials and research that will create opportunities
for USC students and faculty.
"In the future, we want to really explore all the possible pathways
that we can work together and create exchanges on all fronts with
dealing with the genocide and dealing with awareness and education
about it," Jungblut said.
Daily Trojan: University of Southern California
April 14, 2015 Tuesday
Stephen Smith, director of USC Shoah Foundation, and Hayk Demoyan,
director of the Armenian Genocide Museum & Institute, signed a
memorandum of understanding on Friday that marks the beginning of a
new collaborative partnership between the two groups.
Sixty testimonies from survivors and witnesses of the Armenian genocide
will begin to be integrated into the Shoah Foundation's Visual History
Archive by April 24, when both the USC Shoah Foundation and Armenian
Genocide Museum & Institute will mark the 100-year anniversary of
the Armenian genocide, which took place from 1915 until 1922 at the
hands of the Ottoman Turkish government. These testimonies are a part
of the Armenian Film Foundation's collection, recorded by filmmaker
J. Michael Hagopian.
The memorandum of understanding will bring the Shoah Foundation's
Visual History Archive containing video testimonies of genocide
survivors to the museum in Armenia. The agreement will create
opportunities for education and research collaboration between the
two organizations on initiatives related to the Armenian genocide.
This new collaboration comes at an appropriate time, as April is
International Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month. The Visual
History Archive is an online portal that currently gives users access
to over 52,000 audio-visual testimonies of international genocide
survivors, in 39 different languages. In the past year, the Visual
History Archive added testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the
1994 Rwandan Tutsi genocide and from the 1937 Nanjing Massacre.
"It opens up a whole new geography for access and collaboration,
given that we're bringing in the Armenian genocide testimonies into the
archives and working with the museum to have the archives accessible,"
said Karen Jungblut, the Shoah Foundation's director of research and
documentation. "It seemed like a logical extension for the museum to
learn more about what we were doing here ... it was an easily aligned
mission to bring these materials and testimonies of survivors to an
audience in Armenia as well as in the U.S."
Located in Yerevan, Armenia, the Armenian Genocide Museum & Institute,
part of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia,
serves as a research and humanitarian body, documenting all materials
related to the Armenian genocide and making them accessible to
the general public. The museum includes maps, eyewitness accounts,
artifacts and other documentation of the genocide during which 1.5
million Armenians were killed.
"We are deeply dedicated to ensuring that those testimonies collected
by J. Michael Hagopian over those many decades find their voice[s]
in the world. There is no better or more appropriate place to do
that than in Yerevan itself," Smith said. "It's a place of memory,
a place where history emanates from, and, through your leadership,
ensures that research and education, which are the fundamentals of
our institute too, really ground these testimonies in the world."
Demoyan said that the collaboration between the two groups marks
an important push to pay tribute to those affected by the Armenian
genocide.
"This will not stay on the paper ... our signatures are triggering
something important, triggering the process of research, preservation,
study and cooperation," Demoyan said.
Demoyan also serves as executive secretary of the state commission
and is coordinating international efforts to commemorate the Armenian
genocide this year.
Jungblut hopes that the two organizations will continue to engage in
an exchange of materials and research that will create opportunities
for USC students and faculty.
"In the future, we want to really explore all the possible pathways
that we can work together and create exchanges on all fronts with
dealing with the genocide and dealing with awareness and education
about it," Jungblut said.