(CNN) They stand among the ramshackle surroundings of their new lives, staring intently into the camera. For a handful of the estimated 700,000 Rohingya refugees who have fled across the border from Myanmar to overcrowded, under-resourced refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh, this is a rare chance to tell their stories.

Dispassionately and with a matter-of-fact delivery at odds with their testimony, they recount what they say are the horrors that have led to their present situation.

One man, Mawaha Nurul Kamal, holds up a list of people from his village he says were killed by the Myanmar military, and how they died. It is a thick sheaf of pages. As the village imam, he says it was his responsibility to keep the record.

Another, Ammad Hossan, says that he witnessed the murder of one- and two-month-old infants.

Myanmar's military has repeatedly denied that it has deliberately attacked unarmed Rohingya -- despite a senior UN official saying the crisis has the "hallmarks" of genocide. Instead, the authorities insist that it only targets Rohingya militants, mostly from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) insurgent group, that have launched deadly attacks on police posts.

"There is no evidence that Myanmar soldiers committed any human rights violations in their response to the ARSA terrorist attacks of 2017," Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay told CNN earlier in August.

"We have recently formed a new independent commission, which will investigate alleged rights abuses in Rakhine State including rape. We will treat any case in accordance with the rule of law."

Morizan claims that the Myanmar military would harass her community with constant demands for money. If any of her children wanted to get married, the soldiers would demand large fines, she says.

'Who's talking with them?'

For Karen Jungblut, Director of Global Initiatives at the Shoah Foundation, who has conducted several of the Rohingya interviews, it is important that Rohingya are given an opportunity to tell their own stories in their own words.

"Everybody's talking about them, but who's talking with them? How do we make sure that they are part of the conversation?" she says.

Around 100 interviews have so far been conducted, part of a sprawling initiative by the USC Shoah Foundation.

The project has previously recorded oral accounts from Holocaust survivors, as well as testimonies from the 1994 Rwandan Tutsi Genocide, the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, the Armenian Genocide and the Guatemalan Genocide, and now its eye has turned to eastern Bangladesh on the one-year anniversary of this -- the latest, and one of the largest -- flights of humanity from persecution.

Among the tales of murder and rape are vignettes of the humiliations that many Rohingya say they have had to endure.

One man holds up registration photos he says were taken by the military -- they rounded us up and put signs around our neck like cattle, he says. The families themselves were forced to pay a fee for the photograph, and fined if there were any new additions, or anyone missing. A fine of 15,000 kyat (around $10) was levied if there was a death in the family, he says.

Jamela Khatoun, a mother of 10, alleges that her children were denied an education because of their ethnicity and religion. Still, though, she says she yearns to return to the place that the Rohingya insist is their rightful homeland.

"We would be happy to if we were able to live in Myanmar as citizens."

Personal insight

That refugees are able to tell their stories, in their own words, is of paramount importance, argues the foundation's director, Stephen Smith.

"Testimonies provide personal insight that are not possible to appreciate from documents or new reporting. They allow the individual to explain what happened ... providing agency at a time when their lives have been stripped of the right to their own personal independence," he says.

The importance of audio-visual testimony is also essential to understanding the often subtle, insidious nature of genocide, which often only receives media coverage at the point of "its most vicious climax," he says.

"Genocide and crimes against humanity often only appear in the public eye when it becomes lethal. However, the initial impact is rarely lethal. Genocide is a long slow process which results in mass murder.

"When collected en masse, testimonies provide a collective voice and enough historical data to support other sources in a quest for what happened."

Rohingya refugees flee Myanmar Rohingya children wait to receive food from an aid group at a refugee camp in Ukhiya, Bangladesh, on Tuesday, November 14. More than 600,000 of the Rohingya Muslim minority group from Myanmar's Rakhine state have fled to Bangladesh, according to the United Nations. Rohingya Muslims paddle a makeshift raft as they cross the Naf River from Myanmar into Bangladesh on November 12. Human rights activists consider the Rohingya to be among the world's most persecuted people. A young Rohingya refugee begs for food through the glass of a car window at Balukhali refugee camp in Bangladesh on October 7. Rohingya refugees carry their belongings across muddy waters at a camp on October 5. Rohingya refugees mourn beside the bodies of relatives who died when a boat capsized in late September. Sona Banu is carried ashore on September 27 by Nobi Hossain after crossing the Naf River by boat from Myanmar to near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Dildar Begum, a Rohingya woman, and her daughter, Noor Kalima, recover from injuries at Sadar Hospital in Cox's Bazar after fleeing their home in Rakhine state. Burnt villages are visible near Maungdaw in Myanmar's Rakhine state on September 27. Rohingya men stand in line September 19 to collect food distributed by aid agencies in Balukhali refugee camp in Bangladesh. People scramble to catch food distributed by aid groups on September 18 at the Balukhali refugee camp in Bangladesh. Rohingya refugees take cover from monsoon rains on September 17 in the Balukhali refugee camp in Bangladesh. A Bangladeshi border guard keeps watch September 16 near the beach of Sharapuri Dwip, where many Rohingya refugees land after crossing from Myanmar. Rohingya refugees disembark from a boat on September 13 on the Bangladeshi side of the Naf River. Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar hold their infant son Abdul Masood, who died when their boat capsized before reaching Bangladesh on September 13. Rohingya refugee Rashida Begum stands next to her 15-year-old son, Azizul Hoque, as he is treated on September 13, at a hospital in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. He sustained a landmine injury while crossing from Myanmar to Bangladesh. Rohingya refugees bury Nur Ali in Kutupalong, Bangladesh, on September 13. Ali was a 50-year-old man who died of gunshot wounds he sustained while fleeing violence in Myanmar. Nur Ali's son, Abul Basar, reacts while attending his father's funeral on September 13, in Bangladesh. In Myanmar, the latest outbreak of violence came after a series of alleged attacks by Rohingya militants on government border posts. In response, Myanmar's military intensified "clearance operations" against "terrorists," driving thousands of people from their homes. Satellite photos released by Human Rights Watch showed entire villages torched to the ground in clashes between Myanmar's armed forces and local militants. Rohingya children flee the Rakhine state by boat on Tuesday, September 12. A woman collapses on September 12, after the wooden boat she and other refugees were traveling in crashed into the shore in Dakhinpara, Bangladesh. The woman is carried to shore after her boat crashed in Dakhinpara. A Rohingya woman cries after the boat crash in Dakhinpara on September 12. Refugees jump from the boat in Dakhinpara on September 12. A Rohingya child holds a baby on September 12, as refugees wade through the Naf River in Bangladesh. Rohingya men pray on September 11, in a makeshift shelter near Cox's Bazar. Bangladeshi volunteers distribute food on September 10, to Rohingya refugees in Chittagong, Bangladesh. Rohingya refugees walk across paddy fields on September 9, after crossing the border in Gundum, Bangladesh. A boat full of Rohingya refugees arrives on September 9, on the Bangladeshi side of the Naf River. A girl is carried to safety after crossing the Naf River on September 9. Rohingya men reach out for relief supplies on September 9, at a refugee camp in Bangladesh. A Rohingya girl carries supplies on September 9, at a refugee camp in Ukhia, Bangladesh. Refugees gather on the shoreline after arriving September 8, in Dakhinpara. A Bangladeshi border guard orders Rohingya refugees to return to the Myanmar side of a small canal on August 29. Bangladesh has been struggling to cope with the influx of refugees. Bangladeshi border guards stand watch on August 26, as Rohingya refugees escape fresh gunfire near Myanmar's Rakhine state.

Record of the past

Oral testimonies are of particular significance when it comes to the Rohingya -- with all official communications in Rakhine State historically recorded solely in Myanmar's official language of Burmese, there is no standardized written form of the 200-year-old dialect that the Rohingya speak.

"Education and literacy rates are very low among Rohingya communities," says Jungblut. "It's an oral/verbal language. So oral history and verbal communication is extremely important."

Conducting the interviews is challenging, she admits. When your job is to listen to hours of suffering, "it's a difficult place to be in. You leave and you want to scream to the world, how can we be complacent about this?" she says.

But they are potentially valuable markers -- a way for the witnesses to finally tell the story of their community's oppression, in their own language.

Their details, Smith says, could hopefully provide scholars and investigators with source material to determine the nature and specificity of alleged wrongdoing.

"When the killing stops, genocide is not over. The traumatic impact of genocide continues on in the lives of those who survived."