The Malach Visual History Centre: the Gateway to 52,000 Life Stories












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            * The Malach Visual History Centre: the Gateway to 52,000 Life Stories
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            The Malach Visual History Centre of Charles University is currently one of the three Europ

            to the archive of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History & Education. The o
            took place in January 29, 2010 at the Charles University Faculty of Mathematics and Physic
            access to the archive.

            Speakers included the Dean of the faculty prof. Zdeněk Němeček, Rector of the university p
            Hampl, and Stephen Smith, executive director of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute. In his
            reminisced on his first meeting with Steven Spielberg, the director of Schindler's List, a

            strived for the horrors of Holocaust never to be forgotten. The Shoa Foundation follows th
            it captures the true stories of people who survived the concentration camps. In the early 

            Smith co-founded the British centre for Holocaust studies, a project that went on to inter
            Spielberg's research for Schindler's List. “Each narrative contains valuable historical in
            victims talk about life, racism, hatred, resistance, courage and survival, which is very i

            our future communication with the whole world. That is the reason why I am happy to be in 
            the privilige open this new centre”, said Smith, noting that every time he meets Steven Sp
            filmmaker reminds him that he promised Holocaust survivors that their memories would be pr

            future generations.

            From left: Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Zdeněk Němeček, Rectors of Char

            Václav Hampl, and Stephen Smith, executive director of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute
            The Rector of Charles University prof. Hampl said that the recorded narratives and life st
            be a memento for this and future generations: “As time passes, even the eye-witnesses pass

            with themselves their memories and experiences, the testimonies whose value for both histo
            is irreplaceable and invaluable. Their stories are warnings against intolerance and indiff
            pose a huge problem even know, as extremism is on the rise. How else could we avoid the gr

            with terrible consequences than to learn from the tragic mistakes and short-sighted decisi
            past?” He also stressed the importance of the centre for further research: “As a rector of
            which integrates human knowledge from the widest variety of disciplines, I have to emphasi

            contribution to interdisciplinary cooperation, which connects fields often deemed to be is
            other. Without any doubt, there are not many projects like this that bring together histor
            doctors, psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, lawyers and e

            not to mention the centre is hosted by the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics.”



            prof. Jan Hajič, director of the Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics of the Facult
            and Physics, introduced the technology behind the project
            The database and its interface were introduced by Martin Šmok, consultant for the Internat

            Institute in Prague, who also provided guidelines on how the archive can be used in the ed
            Each interview records the memories of events that took place before, during and after Wor
            with images, documents, photographs and other artifacts provided by the interviewees. The 

            of an interview is 2 hours. The archive includes 4,557 stories of witnesses born in Czecho
            interviews were recorded in the Czech Republic and 656 in Slovakia. “Besides the personal 
            people who the Nazis marked as Jews, the archive also captures the history of the whole 20

            seen by those who experienced it – including the wars, totalitarian regimes, emigration, p
            other hardships. At the same time, the interviews are done in firm belief that people will
            from the history”, said Mr. Šmok. The interviews cannot serve as education material by the

            experience of the Institute from many other countries proves that they provide teachers wi
            that can supplement, enhance historical facts, while also making them more personal.


            “The archive is not a collection of political statements, but a collection of life stories
            beings“, said Martin Šmok about its potential uses in education.
            (Lucie Kettnerová)



            Translation: Jaroslav Švelch