100 Days to Inspire Respect & Hope
Week 6: Countering Hate

This week’s theme focuses on countering hate through a close reading of testimony. In this clip from the Visual History Archive, Holocaust survivor Anne Bertolino speaks on the importance of taking personal responsibility to stand up for what is right and prevent history from repeating itself in the future.

Learn more at IWitness
Our mission is to develop empathy, understanding and respect through testimony.

Through our research and educational programs, the Institute harnesses the power of its archive of personal testimonies from witnesses to genocide in order to do our part to build a better world.

Upcoming Events

06
Apr
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Speaking About Sexuality: Male Jewish Intimacy and Agency in Oral History Interviews
Center for Advanced Genocide Research Event
An online lecture by Florian Zabransky (PhD candidate at the Weidenfeld Institute–Centre for German-Jewish Studies at University of Sussex, UK) 2020-2021 Margee and Douglas Greenberg Research Fellow…
  • April 6, 2021
  • Online, United States
21
Apr
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How the Holocaust’s Jewish Calendars Bear Witness
Center for Advanced Genocide Research Event
In this lecture, Alan Rosen considers the special manner of witness found in Holocaust-era calendars composed in ghettos, in camps, and in hiding. The marking of fast days and festivals tell a remarkable story; the form, organization, and languages of the calendars convey a related one. And as with testimony in general, what is omitted—a date or a...
  • April 21, 2021
  • Online, United States
28
Apr
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Are ‘Bad Jews’ Nones? Exploring the Limits of Belonging on Twitter
USC Stronger Than Hate Program
The Casden Faculty and Graduate Student Research Seminar invite you to a discussion with Jennifer Thompson, Maurice Amado Professor of Applied Jewish Ethics and Civic Engagement, California State University, Northridge…
  • April 28, 2021
  • Online Event

Latest News

May Their Memories Be A Blessing
The Institute mourns the passing of members of our community in 2020, including survivors who have given testimony Hanna Pankowsky, Dario Gabbai, Anneliese Nossbaum, Éva Székely, Itka Zygmuntowicz,
Wednesday, December 30, 2020 - 8:00am
Holocaust Survivors awarded Germany’s Order of Merit
In recognition of their service as witnesses to the Holocaust, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier honored survivors Anita Lasker-Wallfisch and Henrietta Kretz with the highest civilian honor, the Order of Merit. Due to the pandemic, the president was unable to confer the medals personally but sent handwritten notes acknowledging their dedication to keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive and providing a strong voice against current antisemitism, right extremism and racism.
Friday, December 18, 2020 - 2:51pm
2020 Year in Review
As we wrap up a very challenging year for many across the globe, we want to share highlights of just some of the work our Institute team and our partners have accomplished during the ongoing pandemic. Thank you for your support.
Friday, December 18, 2020 - 10:20am
We Remember George Weiss, Holocaust Survivor, Artist, Institute Volunteer, Friend
USC Shoah Foundation today mourns the loss of a close friend, George Weiss, a longtime volunteer with the Institute and a Holocaust survivor who endured homelessness and life on the run as a young child separated from his parents in both France and Belgium during the war. He was 87. Weiss was a familiar and beloved presence at the offices of the Institute, stopping in every week to curate and work with clips of video testimony from the Visual History Archive, which contains 55,000 life stories of survivors and witnesses to the Holocaust and other genocides.
Thursday, December 17, 2020 - 2:00pm
Remembering Moshe Taube
We are very saddened at the USC Shoah Foundation to learn that our friend and Holocaust survivor Cantor Moshe Taube has passed away at age 93. Cantor Taube was among 1,200 Jews saved by Oskar Schindler during the Holocaust and led in the chanting of prayers at Congregation Beth Shalom in Pittsburgh.
Friday, December 11, 2020 - 4:57pm
The Last Goodbye: Now Available on Oculus Rift!
The Last Goodbye virtual reality experience is now available on Oculus Rift. Four years ago, Pinchas Gutter traveled back to the Majdanek concentration camp in Poland, where he had been imprisoned as a child during the Holocaust. In this emotional journey, Pinchas shares his firsthand testimony of what he saw and experienced there and invites you into the spaces and memories with him.
Tuesday, December 8, 2020 - 2:21pm

Creative Storytelling

Our storytelling projects are both based on and inspired by the more than 55,000 testimonies in the Institute’s archive. They are a deeper look into the emotional complexities of our survivor stories and told through the written word, video, audio and photography. They are an opportunity to explore the impact that these voices have and the way in which testimony drives our understanding of conflict and grief as well as resilience, resistance and hope.

What Is Home?
We asked you to submit your stories to us. Each week in April, we offered a new theme: spaces/places, family, resilience and messages for the future, and we asked for your stories. Your contributions were remarkable. We received dozens upon dozens of responses from around the world — from Morocco to Argentina to Switzerland, Israel, Canada, Poland and across the United States. Some of you shared that you even had family members in our archive.
Friday, July 17, 2020 - 10:25am
My Name Is Sara
“You can’t just close your eyes and pretend that the history goes away,” says Mickey Shapiro the eldest son of two Holocaust survivors who just finished a four-year-long journey to create a film about his mother’s story. “I am stuck with this for life, but I think it makes me more motivated. When you hear a story like that from your parents, you want to make things better.”
Friday, June 5, 2020 - 7:06pm
Current Conflict Collections: How and Why USC Shoah Foundation is Collecting Testimony from Ongoing Conflicts
The young woman stares at me as I wait to press play on the video. Her eyes are dark and her lips are pursed. You can see a bit of her thick black hair which is matted beneath an off-white, or perhaps a light-pink scarf. It is hard to tell the exact color in the shadowed room.
Monday, June 1, 2020 - 1:09pm

Watch and Share

Live Zoom Discussion - My Name Is Sara
Language: English
Paul Parks on his being called to choose non-violence
Language: English
Gad Beck on rescuing his lover Manfred Lewin
Gay Pride Month
Language: German
Together We Are Stronger Than Hate
Stronger Than Hate, an initiative that draws on the power of eyewitness testimony to help students and the general public recognize and counter antisemitism, racism, xenophobia and other forms of hatred.
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