The National Education Association (NEA) has added a selection of the Institute's classroom lessons to its Lesson Plan Search Engine. The lessons, which are available online, center on experiences of Holocaust survivors and other witnesses. Now searchable on the NEA Lesson Plan Search Engine

In July, the USC Shoah Foundation Institute held a follow-up workshop for graduates of the 2011 Master Teacher Program. Participants reconvened as a professional practice- and learning-community after using testimony in the classroom during the past school year.

Rwandan, South African educators join discourse on global perspectives in education The USC Shoah Foundation Institute has organized a symposium for educators and leaders of partner organizations in Rwanda and South Africa. The symposium, titled “Teaching, Testimony, and Transformation: Global Landscapes,” began on July 25 and will conclude on July 26.

Nearly 52,000 video interviews archived digitally LOS ANGELES—June 28, 2012—The USC Shoah Foundation Institute has completed a multiyear, multimillion-dollar project to digitally preserve the video interviews in its Visual History Archive. The archive contains testimony from nearly 52,000 Holocaust survivors and other witnesses.

Institute senior staff among delegates from 28 member states USC Shoah Foundation Institute Executive Director Stephen D. Smith, Managing Director Kim Simon, and Director of Programs Kori Street were in Belgium this week for the year's first plenary gathering of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research (ITF).

On June 6, Steven Spielberg, Founder of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute, presented Robert A. Iger, Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, with the Institute’s highest honor, the Ambassador for Humanity Award. Iger was honored at the Institute’s annual gala, where he was recognized for his support of the Institute’s work, his longtime philanthropy, and his leadership role in corporate citizenship. The gala presenting sponsor was jcpenny. Jimmy Kimmel hosted, and Mary J. Blige gave a special musical performance.

A USC Shoah Foundation evaluation consultant discusses the positive effects IWitness had on students who piloted the program from February to April 2011.

The USC Shoah Foundation Institute is partnering to present the international symposium "Bridging the Divide in Holocaust and Genocide Studies: Towards a Cross-Cultural Interdisciplinary Dialogue" to take place June 12 - 14 at Haifa University in Israel. Moving beyond ethically loaded debates surrounding definitions of Holocaust and genocide and the limits of comparison, the symposium will explore the way Holocaust-based discourse, tropes, and commemorative practice inform and/or are incongruent with diverse experiences of global mass violence in everyday life.

USC Shoah Foundation’s newest partner school is Daniel Berzsenyi High School in Budapest, Hungary.

Paris Papamichos Chronakis, a visiting research scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles, visited the Institute on May 24 to discuss his research in the Visual History Archive.

“We are convinced that access to this unique archive will promote research and teaching on the history of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust,” said Yannis Mylopoulos, Rector of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. “Aristotle University of Thessaloniki is proud to support efforts directed toward honoring and commemorating the victims of the Holocaust, especially the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki and its victims during the World War II.”

Glenn Fox, a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in neuroscience at the University of Southern California, visited the USC Shoah Foundation Institute on May 17 to discuss how he used testimony from the Visual History Archive for his research on gratitude.

The History Meeting House in Warsaw has become the first institution in Poland to offer full access to the Archive of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education.  Nearly 52,000 videotaped testimonies of Holocaust survivors and other witnesses, recorded in 56 countries and in 32 languages—mostly between 1994 and 1999—can now be remotely accessed via an online interface that allows searching and viewing the fully indexed video and related metadata.

Dom Spotkań z Historią w Warszawie stał się pierwszą instytucją w Polsce, która oferuje pełny dostęp do Archiwum Historii Wizualnej Instytutu Fundacji Shoah dla Historii Wizualnej i Edukacji mieszczącej się na Uniwersytecie Południowej Kalifornii. Blisko 52 000 relacji video ocalonych z Holokaustu i innych świadków, nagranych w 56 krajach i w 32 językach, w latach 1994-1999, mogą być teraz oglądane dzięki specjalnemu dostępowi on-line, dzięki któremu można przeszukiwać i oglądać całkowicie zindeksowane relacje video i inne załączone do nich archiwalia.

The USC Institute of Armenian Studies’ Leadership Council honored the USC Shoah Foundation Institute at an April 15 gala banquet. The USC Shoah Foundation Institute was honored for championing the Armenian Genocide Digitization Project, which aims to gather and preserve digital copies of all existing interviews with Armenian Genocide survivors and other witnesses. The Dr. J. Michael Hagopian/Armenian Film Foundation archive of nearly 400 testimonies will be the first collection in the Armenian Genocide Digitization Project.

Last week, in commemoration of Yom Hashoah, the Institute enjoyed visits with renowned historian, Yehuda Bauer, and Father Patrick Desbois. Staff and colleagues at USC were left with profound impressions reflecting on the themes that shape this field relating to testimony, genocide, and social change.

The USC Shoah Foundation Institute is pleased to announce its new Inspiration Award, which will honor friends

USC students explore opposition to genocide past and presentOn April 3, 2012, four USC students came to the Shoah Foundation Institute to discuss the research projects they conducted over the summer in connection with an interdisciplinary research cluster led by Executive Director Stephen D.

Two senior staff members of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute have traveled to South Africa and Rwanda to meet with partners and explore new relationships and opportunities for collaborative initiatives.

The USC Shoah Foundation Institute is pleased to announce the formation of the Shoah Foundation Institute Student Association (SFISA), a student-led organization comprised of undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Southern California.

March 8 Roundtable at USC Highlights Women’s Responses to Mass ViolenceIn honor of  International Women’s Day on 8 March 2012, the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation Institute is partnering with The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme to hold a roundtable discussion, “Strength Through Adversity: Women and Mass Violence”, in Los Angeles.

USC Shoah Foundation's first co-sponsored academic event of the year was a discussion about how atrocities can be stopped by governments and individuals.

USC Shoah Foundation executive director Stephen Smith delivered the keynote address at The Aladdin Project’s International Seminar on Holocaust Education today in Istanbul, Turkey.

USC Shoah Foundation executive director Stephen Smith will accept Peace Over Violence’s Media Award on behalf of USC Shoah Foundation at the nonprofit’s annual Humanitarian Awards on Friday.

In between attending classes together and posing for pictures in front of Tommy Trojan, USC students and their families can get to know USC Shoah Foundation in a special exhibit at this year’s Trojan Family Weekend.

We continue our 10-part Echoes and Reflections series with Lesson 7: Rescuers and Non-Jewish Resistance.

(LOS ANGELES, CA, March 1, 2012) – “Don’t Let Their Voices Be Forgotten” is the message that the USC Institute of Armenian Studies’ Leadership Council is sending as it invites a cross section of highly respected community leaders and benefactors to a gala banquet on April 15, 2012, in honor of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for championing the Armenian Genocide Digitization Project.

Andrea Szőnyi tells the story of her father, who survived Auschwitz as a boy with the help of a man named Ernő Spiegel.

USC Shoah Foundation’s director of education, Kori Street, will give two presentations this week in Montreal.

Holocaust education advocate Rhonda Fink-Whitman interviews a dozen Pennsylvania college students about the Holocaust. Their answers show what happens when states do not make Holocaust education mandatory.