The company says the collaboration would give internet uses access to tools to visualise and better understand the genocide currently unfolding in Darfur.
The Holocaust Museum has assembled photographs, data and eyewitness testimony that has been brought together in Google Earth. The information would appear as a Global Awareness layer in Google Earth, the company said.
The ‘Crisis in Darfur’ project is part of the Museum’s Genocide Prevention Mapping Initiative that will over time include information on potential genocides allowing citizens, governments and institutions to access information on atrocities in their nascent stages and respond.
“Educating today’s generation about the atrocities of the past and present can be enhanced by technologies such as Google Earth,” Museum director Sara Bloomfield said.
“When it comes to responding to genocide, the world’s record is terrible. We hope this important initiative with Google will make it that much harder for the world to ignore those who need us the most.”
Google said its part in the project was based on the company’s belief that “technology can be a catalyst for education and action.”
“Crisis in Darfur will enable Google Earth users to visualize and learn about the destruction in Darfur as never before,” Google Earth vice-president Elliot Schrage said.
‘Crisis in Darfur’ content comes from a range of sources – the US State Department, non-governmental organizations, the United Nations, individual photographers, and the Museum. Google Earth lets users zoom into the region to view more than 1,600 damaged and destroyed villages, providing visual, compelling evidence of the scope of destruction.
With this release, the Museum also announced the creation of a similar mapping project on Holocaust history available on the Museum’s website.
To find ‘Crisis in Darfur’, users must download the Google Earth application at no cost from the Google site. Once downloaded, users will find Crisis in Darfur by flying over Africa. Information on the Museum’s Genocide Prevention Mapping Initiative and the Holocaust mapping layer can be accessed from the Museum's Web site at www.ushmm.org/googleearth.
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