News By Year

Reflections Upon Graduation: How Testimony Has Changed My Life

In just a few days, I’ll be graduating with my bachelors in International Relations from USC. As I sit here writing this piece, I have a chance to reflect on these three years of fundamental personal…
Wednesday, May 11, 2016

New Dimensions in Testimony on Display at USHMM

New Dimension in Testimony project staff Heather Maio, left, and Kia Hays, right, with the display of Pinchas Gutter at USHMM …
Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Japanese Activist Tamaki Matsuoka Interviewed for Nanjing Massacre Collection

From her relatively humble beginnings as an elementary school teacher in Osaka, Japan, Tamaki Matsuoka has become one of the fiercest advocates for remembrance and recognition of the 1937 Nanjing…
Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Atina Grossmann Lecture (Summary)

Atina Grossmann, PhD (Cooper Union, New York)“Remapping Survival: Jewish Refugees and Lost Memories of Displacement, Trauma, and Rescue in the Soviet Union, Iran, and India​”April 11, 2016&nbsp…
Monday, May 9, 2016

Dan Stone Lecture (Summary)

Dan Stone, PhD (Royal Holloway, University of London)“Concentration Camps: A Global History”March 29, 2016In his public lecture at the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research &nbsp…
Monday, May 9, 2016

Alexander Korb Chosen for 2016-2017 Center for Advanced Genocide Research Fellowship

The 2016-2017 Center Fellow at USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research will be Alexander Korb, Ph.D., director of the Stanley Burton Centre for Holocaust & Genocide Studies at…
Friday, May 6, 2016

Next Echoes and Reflections Online Professional Development Course Begins May 9

Educators can finish the school year with a three-part online professional development course from Echoes and Reflections on teaching the Holocaust using testimony from the Visual History Archive and…
Thursday, May 5, 2016

Growing up Jewish and Studying the Holocaust

A few weeks ago, a student I was interviewing for a profile I was writing on him for USC Shoah Foundation’s website said something interesting: “Growing up Jewish, the Holocaust is pretty much always…
Thursday, May 5, 2016

#BeginsWithMe - Why I Support Teaching with Testimony

As the son of two survivors of the Shoah and the husband of a daughter of two survivors, identifying as the Next Generation has been the essence of who I am. It is the prism through which I see and…
Thursday, May 5, 2016

USC Shoah Foundation Commemorates Yom HaShoah Around the World

Across the United States and in Europe, USC Shoah Foundation is helping to commemorate Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, on May 4 and 5.Executive Director Stephen Smith spoke at the Jewish…
Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Managing Testimony Data Gets an Update

USC Shoah Foundation’s ability to capture and preserve important information about each testimony has gotten a critical update.Behind the “curtain” of what viewers see in the Visual History Archive…
Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Commemorating Yom HaShoah through Testimony

Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom HaShoah as it’s known in Hebrew, commemorates and honors the victims and survivors of the Holocaust. This year, people around the world will remember the victims of…
Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Original Manuscript of Armenian Genocide Whistleblower Discovered in San Francisco

Carla Garapedian, left, shows the Mugerditchian manuscript to USC Shoah Foundation writer Robin Migdol, center, and Diana Hekimian) When a cousin of Diana…
Monday, May 2, 2016

Berlin Graduate Students Research Holocaust Victims for Stolperstein Memorial

USC Shoah Foundation Teaching Fellows Alina Bothe and Gertrud Pickhan’s course “The Deportation of Polish Jews from Berlin in 1938” has led to another family learning its fate for the first time and…
Friday, April 29, 2016

Holocaust Survivor Zenon Neumark Speaks to Students and Donates Historical Documents

Postcards written by Zenon Neumark during World War II, donated to USC Shoah Foundation On a recent Thursday afternoon, Holocaust survivor Zenon Neumark spoke at USC Shoah Foundation…
Thursday, April 28, 2016

USC Shoah Foundation Hosts IWitness Workshop for Educators in Macomb County, Michigan

As part of the IWitness Detroit program, USC Shoah Foundation education staff hosted a half-day IWitness workshop for educators at the Macomb Intermediate School District (MISD), Michigan, last…
Wednesday, April 27, 2016

The Necessity of Finding the “Us” and Not Focusing on the “Them”

News of the deadly bombs that ripped apart the Brussels airport terminal last month sent a shockwave through me. I know that line, that place. I have stood in that spot. The “what if” scenario is…
Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Staff Begin Indexing New Guatemalan Testimonies

Ita Gordon, left and Sandra Gruner-Domic index Guatemalan testimonies As the Institute’s partner Fundacion de Antropologia Forense…
Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Aleksan Markaryan: The Last Interviewee

USC Shoah Foundation mourns the death of Armenian Genocide survivor Aleksan Markaryan in January 2017. The story below was written in April 2016 when USC Shoah Foundation staff visited him at his…
Monday, April 25, 2016

Education Department Adds New Education and Outreach Specialist for IWitness Armenia

USC Shoah Foundation is expanding its efforts to develop educational resources about the Armenian Genocide with the creation of a new position devoted to the IWitness Armenia program.Sara Cohan was…
Friday, April 22, 2016

Passover in Bergen-Belsen

Passover, Bergen-Belsen, 1945. These two thoughts do not belong together: Bergen-Belsen, the epitome of captivity; Passover, the celebration of freedom from slavery. Rafael…
Friday, April 22, 2016

New IWitness Activity Shares Stories of Hidden Identities

The newest activity in IWitness draws on testimonies of Holocaust survivors to spark students’ reflection on how identity, and the struggle to hide it, can affect people from all walks of life…
Thursday, April 21, 2016

Survivors Share Poetry at Student-Led Event “Genocide Through Poetry”

Watch the Facebook live stream of the event hereTwenty-two and 71 years after surviving genocide, Edith Umugiraneza and Celina Biniaz, respectively, shared poetry they wrote about their experiences…
Wednesday, April 20, 2016

10 Interesting Experiences in the Armenian Genocide Testimony Collection

Testimonies in the Armenian Genocide Collection can be a great tool in the fight for Turkish recognition of the genocide on a social level. After spending nearly nine months working this collection,…
Wednesday, April 20, 2016

POLIN Museum Debuts Short Film on Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews premiered an original short film about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising featuring testimony from the…
Tuesday, April 19, 2016

185 Armenian Genocide Testimonies Added to Visual History Archive

USC Shoah Foundation published 185 Armenian Genocide testimonies in the Visual History Archive on Friday, nearly tripling the size of the Institute’s Armenian Genocide collection. At the…
Monday, April 18, 2016

Ukrainian Consultant Represents USC Shoah Foundation at Education Roundtable

USC Shoah Foundation’s consultant in Ukraine Anna Lenchovska shared the resources of USC Shoah Foundation at a roundtable discussion for educators at the Ukraine National Museum’s Memorial to the…
Friday, April 15, 2016

Students to Host Genocide Survivor Poetry Event

USC DEFY will host genocide survivors Celina Biniaz and Edith Umugiraneza on Tuesday, April 19, to read poetry they’ve written about their experiences during the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide,…
Thursday, April 14, 2016

Powerful Poetry: Three Activities to Help Students Connect with History

This month – National Poetry Month in the U.S. – is a great time to explore just how powerful words can be. When it comes to understanding difficult moments in history, poetry and writing can…
Thursday, April 14, 2016

Detroit and the Power of Testimony

Donate TodayMy name is Brandon Bartley and I’m a 17-year-old senior at Winston Churchill High School in Michigan. I want to tell you about my experience watching survivor testimony from USC…
Tuesday, April 12, 2016