USC Shoah Foundation Releases Dimensions in Testimony Interview with Mona Golabek

USC Shoah Foundation today unveils a Dimensions in Testimony (DiT) interview with internationally celebrated author and concert pianist Mona Golabek.

Published on the Institute’s award-winning IWitness page in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, this is the inaugural DiT interactive experience to feature a second-generation (or ‘2G”) descendent of a Holocaust survivor.

“I feel profoundly honored to be the first 2G to have a DIT created by the USC Shoah Foundation,” Golabek said. “I have often said that my beloved parents etched six million numbers on my heart. I think that is why I have chosen a life path—to honor their legacy, and by doing so, the legacy of all the precious souls we lost in the Holocaust.”

USC Shoah Foundation’s Dimensions in Testimony enables people to ask questions that prompt real-time responses from pre-recorded video interviews. Golabek’s interview was made possible thanks to The Willesden Project, a partnership between the Institute, Golabek’s Hold On To Your Music Foundation and the Koret Foundation.

The Willesden Project is rooted in The Children of Willesden Lane, Golabek’s bestselling book that tells the story of her mother Lisa Jura’s escape from Nazi-occupied Austria on the Kindertransport. 

Lesly Culp, USC Shoah Foundation’s Interim Director of Education and Outreach, said the themes of legacy explored in The Children of Willesden Lane echo with many children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors.

“Mona’s story touches on many of the themes we see expressed by second- and third-generation descendants of Holocaust survivors,” Culp said. “Recording her story for Dimensions in Testimony will enable people around the world to explore how a second-generation descendant carries the memory of her mother’s Kindertransport experience forward, it’s impact on her personal story, and the legacy she is building upon.”

Dimensions in Testimony was developed in 2014 in association with the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, with technology by USC Institute for Creative Technologies and concept by Conscience Display. Integration in IWitness is made possible through the generous support of the Snider Foundation.

To date, more than 60 survivors and witnesses to the Holocaust and other genocides have been interviewed for Dimensions in Testimony. Debuting with a permanent installation featuring Pinchas Gutter at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in 2015, DiT installations are now featured at 11 museums around the world.

On February 16, Golabek will join an Echoes and Reflections webinar to share her story of survival, hope, and legacy. Legacy and the Kindertransport: A Story of Hope Across Generations will also feature educational resources from USC Shoah Foundation and Echoes & Reflections that can be integrated across the curriculum.