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Video Clips from Historical Places

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Video History Today is the first web site dedicated to providing schools, colleges and universities with raw video clips recorded at places of historical interest.

Video images recorded on the actual sites of major historical events have been brought together to provide students with the basic ingredients to produce video essays and mini-documentaries.

Access to the on-line library is currently free for one month but this may change to an annual subscription.  There are also themed Video Collections for salw at £34.50 each.

The Video History Today Video Collections 

The Holocaust

American Civil War

D-Day & Normandy 1944
Video Collections (£34.50 each)

Online access to ALL library video files (Free for one month - code 'FREE')

What is the concept behind Video History Today?

The Video History Today Video Collections and library are designed to be used by teachers and students to help improve the understanding of the major events in world history: 

  • TEACHERS can produce their own videos to promote discussion within a group, demonstrate where the events being discussed occured and expand a students understanding of what really happened.
  • STUDENTS can create their own stories, direct their own mini-documentary, make their own history. 

Ultimately, the Video History Today Video Collections take the student to where history happened, allows them to relate to a real location and hopefully improve their ability to absorb world events by relating to where it really happened. 

The majority of video clips in the Video Collections do not tell a story: that's what your imagination is for...  

Why write an essay when you can see an essay.


Video History Today has travelled Europe and the United States of America to film the location of major historical events.

  • The Holocaust (Auschwitz, Birkenau, Bergen Belsen, Dachau, Plaszow, Sachsenhausen & more)
  • D Day & Operation Overlord (Omaha Beach, Pegasus Bridge, Point du Hoc, Utah Beach, Normandy American Cemetery, Arromanches & more)
  • American Civil War  (Gettysburg, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Petersburg, Manassas, Appomattox Court House).
  • The Cold War (Hohenschönhausen, Berlin Wall, Plotzensee Memorial Prison, Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, Berlin Airlift Memorial).

 

The Collections include well known locations but also those not so well known but still a key part of the historical event:

The memorial grave of Anne Frank in Bergen Belsen, Germany;

Where the Sharpshooter died at Gettysburg, Pennsylvannia;

Where Oskar Schindler saved hundreds of Jews in Krakow, Poland;

Where the French Revolution was conceived in Versailles;

The Cold War prison cells of political prisoners in East German Berlin;

Brecourt Manor, where the few Band of Brothers saved the many of the US Army 4th Division landing on Utah Beach;

 

Rather then write an essay on history, why not create a visual essay?

Teacher ideas:

  • Analyze the events of the Holocaust starting with the meeting that decided on the Final Solution to the 'Jewish problem' in Central Europe (the Wannsee Villa in Berlin) to the horrors of Plaszow, Auschwitz and Birkenau.

  • Follow the events of the French Revolution from the first meeting at the Jeu de Paume in Versailles to the location of the 'Storming of the Bastille' in Paris.

  • Create a video essay on the critical events of the American Civil War using footage from several Battlefields from Manassas to Appomattox Court House via Antietam, Richmond and Gettysburg.

 

Recent articles

  France: Normandy: Utah Beach Views: D-Day: 1944: World War II (in: Europe: France)
Oct 9, 2008

Some general views of Utah Beach, Normandy.
  United States: Gettysburg: Warren Statue: American Civil War: Pennsylvania: 1863 (in: United States)
Oct 7, 2008

Video clips of the Warren Statue overlooking the Valley of Death on the Gettysburg Battlefield of July 1863.

 
  France: Normandy: Utah Beach Exit 2 Commentary:D-Day: 1944: World War II (in: Europe: France)
Sep 26, 2008

A commentary only file showing the area around Exit 2 Utah Beach, Normandy.
  France: Normandy: Mulberry Remnant: Utah Beach: D-Day: World War II: 1944 (in: Normandy: June 1944)
Sep 23, 2008

Video clips of some concrete remnants from the American Mulberry Harbour destroyed by a storm in June 1944.
  United States: Gettysburg: Little Round Top: American Civil War: Pennsylvania: 1863 (in: United States)
Sep 15, 2008

Video clips of Little Round Top and Warrens Lookout overlooking the Valley of Death on the Gettysburg Battlefield of July 1863.
  France: Normandy: Ranger Museum: Grandchamp-Maisy: Omaha Beach: World War II (in: Europe: France)
Sep 12, 2008

A short look at thr Ranger Museum, dedicated to the American soldiers who assaulted Pointe du Hoc on 6th June 1944.
  United States: Chancellorsville: Earthworks: 1863: American Civil War (in: United States)
Sep 9, 2008

A small file of video clips showing some of the earthworks which still remain in the Chancellorsville area.
  France: Normandy: The Entrance: La Cambe: German Military Cemetery: World War II: 1944 (in: Europe: France)
Sep 5, 2008

A short collection of video clips showing the entrance to the La Cambe German Cemetery in Normandy, France.
  France: Normandy: Father & Son: Normandy American Cemetery: Omaha Beach (in: Europe: France)
Sep 1, 2008

World War II threw up many sad stories and these graves mark another: a father and son buried side by side in the Normandy American Cemetery in France.
  United States: Gettysburg: Slaughter Pen & the Valley of Death: American Civil War: Pennsylvania: 1863 (in: United States)
Aug 30, 2008

The names Slaughter Pen and the Valley of Death sum up the events at the southern end of the Gettysburg Battlefield.  This selection of video clips shows the aptly named battlefield close to Devil's Den.
  United States: Richmond: The Battlefield: Malvern Hill: Seven Days' Battles: American Civil War: 1862 (in: United States)
Aug 26, 2008

A small collection of video clips showing the battlefield at Malvern Hill, Richmond, where the Seven Days' Battles ended in July 1862.
  France: Normandy: The Gliders: Pegasus Bridge: 1944: D Day:World War II (in: Europe: France)
Aug 23, 2008

A closer look at the replica glider on display at the Pegasus Bridge Museum, Normandy, and a small part of one of the original gliders from 6th June 1944.
 
more articles >>