Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Mu'assasat al-dhakirah al-'Iraqiyah [Iraq Memory Foundation] records
2010C3
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Mu'assasat al-dhākirah al-'Irāqīyah [Iraq Memory Foundation] records
Date (inclusive): 2003-2010
Collection Number: 2010C3
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material:
Arabic
Physical Description:
10 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize box, 1,513 digital video files
(2.8 Linear Feet)
Abstract: File-based videorecordings, videocassettes, optical discs, and transcripts, as well as brochures and legal and financial records
relating to political conditions and human rights violations in Iraq under the Ba'th party regime. Includes digitized video
testimony of survivors.
Creator:
Muʼassasat al-dhākirah al-ʻIrāqīyah
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Users must sign use agreement. Boxes 5, 6, and 8 closed until 2042 October 1. Box 11 may not be used without permission of
the Archivist. Digital access copies of Boxes 2-4, as well as access copies of the videorecordings are available for immediate
use.
Users must sign use agreement - no photography, scanning, downloading, or duplication in any manner is permitted until 2042
October 1; notes may be made. Quotations from this collection may be protected by copyright law. The Hoover Institution, Stanford
University, does not hold copyright to any of the materials in the collection; it is the researcher's responsibility, when
necessary, to obtain copyright permission. The Hoover Institution is not responsible for any misuse by researchers of quotations
obtained from this collection.
Materials were acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2009. An increment of videocassettes and optical discs
was received in 2012, and an increment of administrative records was received in 2013.
For tangible items: [Identification of item], Mu'assasat al-dhākirah al-'Irāqīyah [Iraq Memory Foundation] records, [Box no.,
Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
For file-based items: [Identification of item] (Electronic Record), [File name], [Series title], Mu'assasat al-dhākirah al-'Irāqīyah
[Iraq Memory Foundation] records, Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
The Mu'assasat al-dhākirah al-'Irāqīyah (Iraq Memory Foundation (IMF)) 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 Hiẓb al-Ba'th al-'Arabଢ଼ al-Ishtirīkଢ଼ (Ba'th Arab Socialist
Party of Iraq) that had been seized by Iraqi rebels. Makiya was accompanied by a BBC filmmaker who filmed his investigation
of the Iraqi government's campaign of ethnic cleansing of Iraqi Kurds (the Anfal). The film,
The Road to Hell, aired in January 1992 on BBC and then on PBS as a
Frontline documentary under the title "Saddam's Killing Fields." 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 received and processed documents and transcribed Iraqi refugee interviews.
After the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime 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. Also in 2003, the IMF acquired the Ba'th Regional Command collection
from the basement of the Ba'th party headquarters 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 from 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 called
Legacy of Evil for Iraqi television. This weekly program consists of interviews with witnesses, Saddam-era video footage, and presentations
of documents created by the regime. In total, the IMF has more than 1700 hours of footage, including videos created by the
Ba'th regime (now allocated to the Hiẓb al-Ba'th al-'Arabī al-Ishtirākī in Iraq records at Hoover), oral histories, the
Legacy of Evil archive, and Saddam Hussein trial videorecordings. The IMF claims the copyrights on all the oral history videos it produces
(IMF Prospectus 2008, page 26, box 1).
On September 21, 2005, IMF directors Kanan Makiya and Hassan Mneimneh testified before the human rights caucus of the U.S.
Congress on the importance of the work of the IMF. The IMF also provided documents for use in the trial of Saddam Hussein.
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection consists of materials created by the Iraq Memory Foundation (IMF) since its inception in 1992. Ba'th Party
records collected by the IMF comprise a separate collection, the Hiẓb al-Ba'th al-'Arabī al-Ishtirākī in Iraq records.
The collection is organized in five series, most of which were defined and named by the Iraq Memory Foundation: Printed matter,
Videocassettes and optical discs, Video Documents Created by the Iraq Memory Foundation, Video Documents from Post 2003, and
Administrative records.
All materials except the printed matter and administrative records are described in the "Video Documents" section of the searchable
database designed and populated by the Iraq Memory Foundation. This database was acquired with the collection and is available
at the Hoover Institution.
Hiẓb al-Ba'th al-'Arabī al-Ishtirākī in Iraq [Ba'th Arab Socialist Party of Iraq], Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Kanan Makiya papers, Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Civil rights -- Iraq
Iraq -- History -- 1979-1991
Iraq -- History -- 1991-2003
Human rights -- Iraq
Iraq -- Politics and government -- 1979-1991
Iraq -- Politics and government -- 1991-2003
Video recordings
Digital cameras
Records (Documents)
Ḥizb al-Baʻth al-ʻArabī al-Ishtirākī (Iraq)