Learn about the Last Chance Testimony Initiative

We are currently recording survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust. If you are a survivor or know someone who is, we would love to hear from you. We are also looking for interviewers.

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The Shoah Foundation Story

Watch our video introduction to learn about the Institute’s history and its current mission at the University of Southern California.

Latest News

Recovered Testimony Brings Light, More Questions, to an Armenian Family
Sedda Antekelian, a member of USC Shoah Foundation’s education team, never knew her own great grandmother had recorded testimony about surviving the Armenian Genocide. Hearing her great grandmother’s voice for the first time has brought Sedda closer to family, filled in gaps about her own history, and opened even more questions. Read More
Monday, April 24, 2023 - 11:09am
We Remember Concentration Camp Liberator Alan Moskin, 96, Advocate for Holocaust Education and Remembrance
USC Shoah Foundation is saddened by the passing of Alan Moskin, a Jewish veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces who, at the age of 18, helped liberate Gunskirchern, a subcamp of Mauthausen Concentration Camp, in May 1945. Later in life, Alan became a tireless advocate for Holocaust education and remembrance at schools, veterans’ groups, and in the media, speaking with candor about the horror he witnessed at the camp, the brutality of combat, and the bigotry he encountered in the U.S. Army.  Read More
Thursday, April 20, 2023 - 2:53pm
In Actor Gal Gadot's Living Room, Schindler's List Survivor Inspires Generations
Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot opened her Los Angeles home to friends and family earlier this week to commemorate Yom HaShoah by hosting an intimate conversation with Holocaust survivor Celina Biniaz, the youngest female on Oskar Schindler’s famed list. Read More
Thursday, April 20, 2023 - 2:18pm

More News

Education

New Partnership to Integrate USC Shoah Foundation Testimonies into Latin American Curriculum
USC Shoah Foundation Launches Armenian Genocide Education—Keep the Promise Teacher Fellowship Program
USC Shoah Foundation Releases Dimensions in Testimony Interview with Mona Golabek

Research

Brazilian Scholar Studies Testimonies Related to Anti-Nazi Resistance in Latin America
New Mickey Shapiro Academic Chair to Deepen, Expand Study of Holocaust Education
Research Fellow Explores Treatment of Gender, Sexuality and Sexual Violence in VHA interviews

Community Connections

Partnership Brings Survivor Voices to Hearts and Homes: This Yom HaShoah, USC Shoah Foundation and Zikaron BaSalon are expanding a grassroots revolution that is changing how the Holocaust is commemorated.
Dancers Give Expression to the Emotions of Testimony
A New Generation Embraces Music the Nazis Tried to Stifle

Collections

Boredom and Excitement at Sea: Jewish Refugees' Experiences on Shanghai-bound Ships
Dimensions in Testimony Education Releases Interview with Nuremburg Prosecutor Ben Ferencz
Nearly 80 Years After The Holocaust, A Survivor Tells His Story

Voices from the Archive

One Youth Group, An Army, and Two Uprisings—The Resistance of Joseph Greenblatt: On the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, we remember a hero
Theary Seng: A Little Girl in a Cambodian Prison Finds a Cruel Calling for Justice From The Killing Fields of Cambodia to a Life of Activism
Nearly 80 Years After The Holocaust, A Survivor Tells His Story

Technology

Past, Present and Future: Redesigned Visual History Archive to Expand Global Access to Holocaust and Genocide Testimonies
Starling Lab and Hala Systems file Cryptographic Submission of Evidence of War Crimes in Ukraine to the International Criminal Court
The Starling Lab for Data Integrity Announces Inaugural Starling Journalism Fellows

We Remember

Marta Wise, 88, Child Survivor in Iconic Auschwitz Photo, Focused on Educating Young People
We Remember Concentration Camp Liberator Alan Moskin, 96, Advocate for Holocaust Education and Remembrance
Dimensions in Testimony Education Releases Interview with Nuremburg Prosecutor Ben Ferencz

Family Stories

Child survivor Rena Quint’s 1998 testimony is an amalgam of her own memories, and details she put together after years of research.
Rena Quint, Child Survivor, Found Herself In Her Family History
Armenian Scholar Finds Lost Songs in USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive
In the Throes of the Armenian Genocide, His Mother Protected Him and Saved More Than a Hundred Others: Sam Kadorian

Watch and Share

Samuel Geller on Purim
Language: English
Holocaust Survivor Martin Greenfield describes his encounter with General Dwight D. Eisenhower upon the liberation of Buchenwald Concentration Camp
Language: English
USC Shoah Foundation Year-In-Review 2022
Language: English

Creative Storytelling

Our storytelling projects are both based on and inspired by the more than 55,000 testimonies in the Institute’s archive. They offer a deeper look into the emotional complexities of our survivor stories and told through the written word, video, audio and photography. They are opportunities 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.

Teaching With Testimony: The Power of Personal Narrative in the Classroom
Twenty-five years ago, in October, 1995, a then 72 year-old Fanny Starr sat down in her living room in Denver, Colorado and recorded a two-hour long testimony with USC Shoah Foundation. Fanny was born as Fala Granek in 1922 in Lodz, Poland -- a diverse city where Jewish and Polish students intermingled. Her family was modern yet traditional. They spoke Polish, kept kosher, went to public school, and celebrated the Jewish holidays; she and her four siblings were assimilated in the way that many young Jewish people in the United States are today.
Last Chance Testimony Collection: The Legacy of Survivor Testimony
This past May, a friend sent me an article he knew I would appreciate. It was an opinion piece in the New York Times titled “Burying My Bubby During the Pandemic” written by a comedy writer named Eitan Levine who, like me, grew up with a grandmother who survived the Holocaust. I began to read and found myself immediately wrapped inside his writing which was so honest it was cathartic. I immediately reached out to Eitan and asked if his grandmother’s testimony was in USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive.
Listen Deeply: The Testimony of Black Lives Matter
“I remember lots and lots of light,” Karla Ballard told me about her childhood home just outside of Philadelphia, a community called Friends of the Fairfax. “So much light. And a beautiful, long dining room table. My father was an entrepreneur and my mom was a nurse. I just remember lots of light coming into that house and having grandparents around watching us, and having Susan, Eileen, and Max — my mother’s best friends.”
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.

The Willesden Project

Inspired by the power of story to transform lives, this groundbreaking initiative available in IWitness combines testimony, technology and music to reshape Holocaust education.

You can help us make a difference
Our education programs bring the voices of survivors into classrooms, impacting future generations to build a better world based on empathy, understanding and respect.
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