The USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research and the International Institute for Holocaust Research, Yad Vashem wish to announce the third joint workshop for advanced PhD candidates working on Holocaust topics.

At a first glance The Yellow Spot: The Extermination of the Jews in Germany is a book about the Holocaust. But in fact, it was published in 1936, after just three years of Nazi rule — and a full five years before the first gas chambers were commissioned for the murder of European Jewry. The authors spend 287 pages detailing a series of laws and actions taken against the Jews. Their conclusion was that the “legal disability” being imposed by the Nazis upon the Jews ultimately would result in their elimination. (Originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.)

A group of over a dozen educators representing the so-called Visegrad countries – a bloc of Central European countries including the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – met for a second time to experience and discuss the power of the IWalks and IWitness activities developed by USC Shoah Foundation.

Students will explore racism through close reading of testimony, they will learn how racism is promoted through the idea of Us v. Them and they will learn about the power of protest and identifying ways to counter racism, equipping students with the knowledge, skills and capacities to create positive change and inspire respect.

New Dimensions in Testimony will be on display at Holocaust Museum Houston until May 30 as part of the museum’s artistic exhibit “A Celebration of Survival.”

The Holocaust is inarguably the most heinous crime against a group of people we have seen in modern times. Despite decades of wrestling with how such an atrocity could have occurred and the postwar generation promising never again, history keeps repeating itself. Therefore, the collection and the custody of testimonies from those who bear witness remains a necessary task for as long as inhumanities keep occurring. Genocide and crimes against humanity transcend religions, cultures, languages, geographic regions, socioeconomics, gender, age, etc., making testimony collection across all cultures not only a moral responsibility, but imperative given the mission of USC Shoah Foundation. We know for sure that under a certain set of circumstances, genocide could happen anywhere, and again.

Three hundred and ninety-six testimonies were added to the Visual History Archive as part of the archive’s latest update on January 23, including new collections and features.

As an educator you might be thinking how to get started with the IWitness Video Challenge. How do you encourage your students to make a difference? How do you incorporate video editing? Well, we have the answers to these questions from actual IWitness educators.

On Monday, faculty were invited to participate in three workshops in USC Shoah Foundation’s office in Leavey Library as part of Diversity and Inclusion week activities.

Personal relationships between Jews and non-Jews in Europe before and during World War II will be brought to light during Geraldien von Frijtag Drabbe Künzel’s semester in residence at USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research this fall.