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Title: Iraq Memory Foundation issuances
Dates: 2005-2008
Collection Number: 2010C3
Creator: Iraq Memory Foundation
Collection Size:
1 manuscript box
(0.4 linear feet)
Repository:
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford, California 94305-6010
Abstract: DVDs and brochures relating to political conditions and human rights violations in Iraq under the Ba'th party regime. Includes
digitized testimony of survivors.
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Archives
Languages:
Arabic
Kurdish
English
Collection is open for research.
Use copies of all videorecordings in this collection are available for immediate access.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives.
[Identification of item], Iraq Memory Foundation issuances, [Box number], Hoover Institution Archives.
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in 2009.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. To determine if this has occurred, find
the collection in Stanford University's online catalog Socrates at
http://library.stanford.edu/webcat . Materials have been added to the collection if the number of boxes listed in Socrates is larger than the number of boxes
listed in this finding aid.
Hiظb al-Ba'th al-'Arabī al-Ishtirākī records, 1968-2003, Hoover Institution Archives
The Iraq Memory Foundation is a private nonprofit organization for documentation of Iraqi history under the Ba'th party regime.
It was founded by Kanan Makiya in 1992 as the Iraq Research and Documentation Project (IRDP) at Harvard University's Center
for Middle Eastern Studies. Makiya had just returned from a November 1991 trip to northern Iraq, where he viewed the archive
of documents of the Hiظb al-Ba'th al-'Arabī al-Ishtirākī (Ba'th Arab Socialist Party of Iraq) that had been seized by Iraqi
rebels. Now president of the Iraq Memory Foundation, Makiya is the Sylvia Hassenfeld Professor of Modern Middle East Studies
at Brandeis University. He has written many books, including
Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq (1989).
In 1993 the IRDP developed a plan to preserve the Ba'thist documents Makiya had examined in Iraq. Over the next ten years
the IRDP processed documents and transcribed Iraqi refugee interviews.
In 2003 the IRDP relocated to Baghdad, where it registered as a Jam'iyah (society) in Iraq under the name Iraq Memory Foundation.
It expanded its mission to include documenting all facets of the Iraqi experience under the regime of Saddam Hussein from
1968 to 2003. The IMF continues to process documents, record oral histories, and collect and exhibit art that shows the ways
Iraqis responded to the Saddam regime. It plans to develop a Museum of Remembrance and Research Center on the Crossed Swords
Ceremonial Parade Grounds in Baghdad.
The IMF began its Oral History on Film Project, which records the testimonies of witnesses to Ba'th regime repression, in
2003. Documentary filmmaker Mustafa Al-Kadhimiy, who formerly headed the Department of Programs and Planning at al-Iraqiyya
television, led the project. In 2005, al-Iraqiyya began broadcasting ten-minute excerpts of the testimonies during prime time
and they quickly became one of Iraq's top-rated TV programs. The IMF went on to produce several seasons of a series, "Legacy
of Evil," for Iraqi television. This weekly program consisted of interviews with witnesses, Saddam-era footage, and presentations
of documents that highlighted the regime's patterns of oppression. In total, the IMF has more than 1700 hours of footage,
including archival film of the regime, oral histories, and the "Legacy of Evil" archive. The IMF claims the copyrights on
all the oral history videos it produces (IMF Prospectus 2008, page 26).
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection consists of materials created by the Iraq Memory Foundation since its inception in 1992. Ba'th Party records
collected by the IMF comprise a separate collection, the Hi?b al-Ba'th al-'Arabi al-Ishtiraki records, 1968-2003.
The collection is organized in two series, printed matter and
Iraqi Testimonies video boxed sets.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Civil rights--Iraq.
Iraq--History--1979-1991.
Iraq--History--1991-2003.
Hiظb al-Ba'th al-'Arabī al-Ishtirākī (Iraq)