New Polish, Hungarian and English-Language Clips on IWitness Watch Page

The Watch page on IWitness has added Polish-language testimony clips for the first time, plus several other Hungarian and English-language clips, in time for the start of the 2016-2017 school year.

The seven Polish clips cover the topics “Prewar Life/Life Before Genocide,” “Hiding,” “Children,” “Family” and “Antisemitism.” The clips are from the testimonies of Polish Holocaust survivors including Stella Madej, Michal Glowinski, Teresa Prekerowa and David Efrati.

The Polish-language clips are intended for educators in Poland who need easy access to Polish-language testimonies on IWitness to use in their classrooms.

In July, 13 teachers attended Poland’s fifth annual Master Teacher program (formerly Teaching with Testimony in the 21st Century), held at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews and led by USC Shoah Foundation’s regional consultant in Poland, Monika Koszyńska. Local interest in the program is stronger than ever, with this year’s application process one of the most competitive yet.

“Participants were amazed by the richness of the Visual History Archive – how many witnesses whose testimonies were collected by USC Shoah Foundation came from their home cities, and some of them were even the graduates of the schools in which they are teaching now,” Koszyńska said.

The Watch page has also gained four more Hungarian-language clips – two in "Antisemitism," and two in "Rescuers/Aid Providers.”

Three more English-language clips have also been added, including Felix Sparks and Marta Wise in the "Genocide Denial" category, and Henry Oertelt in "Tolerance."

The Watch page currently has nearly 300 testimony clips from the Visual History Archive's Holocaust, Rwandan, Nanjing and Armenian collections, and next week will publish its first set of clips from the Guatemalan collection. These clips are popular with teachers, as they are organized into easy-to-browse topic categories such as "Refugees," "Kristallnacht," and "Discrimination" and anyone may view the clips even without an account on IWitness.