Resistance

Why this focal point

Observing a religious holiday. Stealing food. Organizing a secret orchestra in the ghetto. Taking up arms. Resistance by Jews against their Nazi oppressors during the Holocaust took many forms. But all were efforts to undermine a regime that was determined to wipe out an entire people. One of the great myths of the Holocaust is that the Jewish people surrendered to mass annihilation. On the contrary, countless men and women risked — and often sacrificed — their lives standing up to the Nazi killing machine.

Throughout history, other persecuted groups have demonstrated similar bravery in the face of genocidal tyranny.

In September 2016, the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research hosted the first-ever international conference on the Guatemalan genocide of the early 1980s. “Resistance” will be the primary theme.

With many perpetrators still connected to power in the Central American country, the present-day movement to bring justice to the architects of the Guatemalan military’s scorched-earth campaign that killed roughly 200,000 people — mostly indigenous villagers — is a form of resistance.

Resistance will also be this year’s theme pertaining to the Institute’s partnership with Comcast, in which a feature film anchors other program offerings meant to memorialize the Holocaust and promote tolerance.

Resistance — which is among the Center’s central topics of examination — isn’t just a phenomenon of war.

The word also describes the acts of courage and kindness that combat intolerance, hatred and other injustices of modern life. It is what separates the bystanders — those who do nothing to resist unfairness or misfortune — from the upstanders who refuse to do nothing or remain silent.