Oral Histories

The Institute aims to develop empathy, understanding, and respect through testimony. The over 55,000 video testimonies of firsthand experience with genocide, and in most cases share the story of the interviewee's life before, during, and after the event.

Steven Spielberg founded the Insitute in 1994 to record interviews with Holocaust survivors and witnesses. It has since expanded to include testimonies of other genocide survivors.

The museum's Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History  Archive is on of the largest and most diverse collection of Holocaust testimonies in the world. The museum conducts interviews, but also collects testimonies produced by others. It also contains testimonies from liberators, collaborators, witnesses, and rescuers.

The Library of Congress has a collection "Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their Stories." Interviews with former slaves took place from 1932 to 1975 in nine states. The interviews took place over 60 years after enslavement and not all recordings are clearly audible. 

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C-SPAN "American Hisotry TV: Eyewitness accounts of key events in our nation's history." 

C-SPAN has a collection of videos that can be sorted by collection and includes: Civil Rights, Iraq War, NASA, Navajo Code Talkers, September 11, 2001, Watergate, Women in Congress, and more.