Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Today, on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a complex of concentration and extermination camps, we take the time to honor the millions of victims of the Holocaust by listening to those who survived these atrocities, and using their remarkable testimonies of survival and loss to cultivate empathy and respect in future generations so that these atrocities may never happen again.

“History shows that the only way to stop genocide is to sound the alarm before it is too late.” 

—Stephen D. Smith, Finci-Viterbi Executive Director, USC Shoah Foundation

The Visual History Archive holds several testimonies of Holocaust survivors who were liberated from Auschwitz-Birkenau. In the following clip from her testimony, Miriam Ziegler recalls what happened during the three days after the camp was abandoned before Soviet troops arrived to liberate the survivors.

In commemoration of this day, we offer a series of online programs and educational resources, which we encourage you to share with family, friends and colleagues.

Online Events

	January 27-31 I Only Want To Live (Volevo solo vivere) Exclusive free virtual screening of I Only wanted to Live (Volevo Solo Vivere), a documentary chronicling the Holocaust as experienced in Italy and featuring testimony from USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive.
	January 27, 4:00 PM PST Impudent Jews: Forgotten Individual Jewish Resistance in Nazi Germany Online conversation with Dr. Wolf Gruner, Founding Director, USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research, and Dr. Steve Ross, Director, USC Casden Institute
	January 28, 11:30 AM PST My Name Is Sara: Live Virtual Conversation My Name Is Sara is available to stream for a fee of $12, January 25-28. Based on the true-life story of 13-year-old Sara Góralnik, who hides in plain sight after escaping a Jewish Ghetto in Poland. The live virtual conversation on January 28 features lead actress Zuzanna Surowy; Director/Producer Steven Oritt; and Executive Producer Mickey Shapiro
	January 28, 4:00 PM PST Ruth: A Little Girl’s Big Journey Global premiere of Ruth: A Little Girl’s Big Journey, an animated short film that brings to life the remarkable childhood journey of media personality, author and Holocaust survivor Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer, known the world over as Dr. Ruth. The film is the centerpiece of a Teaching with Testimony event.
	January 31, 2 PM PST Liberation Heroes: The Last Eyewitnesses Q&A The film Liberation Heroes: The Last Eyewitnesses is being featured as part of the Stamford JCC’s Jewish Film Festival along with a special Q&A with the filmmakers.

Educational Resources to Inspire Respect and Hope

Through the power of survivor testimony, the Institute's online educational resource IWitness has launched a series "100 Days to Inspire Respect & Hope." 

Modeled after the aggressive 100-day agenda initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he took office in 1933, the initiative provides teachers with free online resources organized along weekly themes designed to help students develop the skills and capacity to counter some of the most difficult topics of hate, racism, intolerance and xenophobia that threaten democracy.