Spielberg launches campaign against genocides throughout the globe
Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation is expanding beyond the Holocaust to document survivor memories from other atrocities, USA TODAY reports.
After collecting 52,000 interviews, the filmmaker's unprecedented effort to record the stories of those who survived Nazi persecution during World War II is now applying the mantra "Never forget" to more recent acts of genocide and oppression.
"Now we ask ourselves: How do we make this vision a priority in communities all across the world?" Spielberg said.
The announcement came Monday night at a benefit dinner featuring Spielberg and other leaders from the Shoah organization, attended by hundreds of Hollywood power brokers.
"Our work on the Holocaust will continue. But we plan to join it now to work with others around the world," said Douglas Greenberg, executive director of the Shoah Foundation Institute at the University of Southern California. "Our commitment is to combat (violence and racism) wherever and however we can no matter who the victims are."
Greenberg said the Shoah group has begun early discussions to enact similar programs focusing on genocide in Rwanda and Cambodia as well as stories of life under apartheid in South Africa.
"The obligation to remember is a moral responsibility that all of us owe to all of those who have suffered violence and racism in the modern world, whether they are Jews or Armenians or Cambodians or Rwandans or Darfuris," Greenberg said.
After collecting 52,000 interviews, the filmmaker's unprecedented effort to record the stories of those who survived Nazi persecution during World War II is now applying the mantra "Never forget" to more recent acts of genocide and oppression.
"Now we ask ourselves: How do we make this vision a priority in communities all across the world?" Spielberg said.
The announcement came Monday night at a benefit dinner featuring Spielberg and other leaders from the Shoah organization, attended by hundreds of Hollywood power brokers.
"Our work on the Holocaust will continue. But we plan to join it now to work with others around the world," said Douglas Greenberg, executive director of the Shoah Foundation Institute at the University of Southern California. "Our commitment is to combat (violence and racism) wherever and however we can no matter who the victims are."
Greenberg said the Shoah group has begun early discussions to enact similar programs focusing on genocide in Rwanda and Cambodia as well as stories of life under apartheid in South Africa.
"The obligation to remember is a moral responsibility that all of us owe to all of those who have suffered violence and racism in the modern world, whether they are Jews or Armenians or Cambodians or Rwandans or Darfuris," Greenberg said.
