Visual History Archive at Columbia University

USC Shoah Foundation

The Visual History Archive contains over 57,000 video testimonies of survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides and massacres, including the Tutski in Rwanda, Cambodia, Armenia, Nanjing, Guatemala, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, as well as testimonies on contemporary antisemitism. Testimonies were taped in 56 countries and in 32 languages.  

The Visual History Archive has been used for the study of history, theatre, human rights, linguistics, and many, many more topics.  For a sampling of courses that use the VHA, please see this brochure.

  • Columbia students, faculty, and staff have on-campus and remote access to the Visual History Archive.
  • Non-affiliated researchers may obtain on-campus access by appointment. Contact vha@library.columbia.edu to make an appointment
  • A one-time registration is required. If this is your first time using the Archive, read Using the Archive at Columbia.

To access the database (with a CUID, from anywhere; without a CUID, onsite only), please click on the "USC Shoah Foundation" banner below.

Visit the Shoah Visual History Archive at Columbia