They Started As Sixth Graders, and Graduated High School Transformed
Claire Denault’s Southern California private high school had a problem with classism. So she decided to approach the issue in a way she knew would resonate with her peers: through story.
As the student government leader who facilitated a weekly school-wide forum, she invited students to anonymously submit testimonies and personal accounts about how they had been disenfranchised or marginalized because of their socioeconomic status. Claire and other students read those narratives at town hall, and intense dialogue followed—that day and for weeks after.
Deepfakes and Holocaust Testimony
USC Shoah Foundation is committed to preserving Holocaust testimony and making those testimonies accessible, but in our current climate, deepfake tactics that manipulate videos and photos threaten to delegitimize real testimonies.
Connecting Next Generations
Stephen Smith, UNESCO chair on Genocide Education and Finci Viterbi Executive Director of the USC Shoah Foundation talks with Elisha Wiesel about growing up with his father, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Eli Wiesel, and the responsibilities of the second generation.
Generation to Generation: The Evolution of Memorialization
We will explore the history behind the exhibits, discuss the nature of memory and memorials, and discover how the world remembers the Shoah and honors the lives we lost. We will also explore how that memory is interconnected to genocides, both past and present.
At the start of 2020, the film was ready to be released in theaters, but the pandemic intervened, and The Survivor languished as the best Holocaust film that moviegoers couldn’t see. It’s now finally scheduled to have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 13, but its future remains uncertain.
Back to School Activities to Help Teachers Address Critical Contemporary Issues
USC Shoah Foundation today launches its 2021-2022 Back to School package, a suite of testimony-based resources on IWitness to help educators navigate the complex issues created by the Covid-19 pandemic and surfaced by the recent upsurge in social movements demanding racial justice.
This year’s classroom activities and educator professional development modules are based on testimony from the Visual History Archive that help students to critically evaluate historical context, consider various perspectives and impacts, and reflect on personal connections.
Two Sides of Survival Nets Best Documentary Prize at Angeles Film Festival
The documentary Two Sides of Survival just landed Winner of Best Documentary Short at the Angeles Film Festival.
Produced by USC Shoah Foundation, Two Sides of Survival brings together stories from the East and West, chronicling how Jews who fled the Nazis in Europe, and Chinese who were threatened by Japanese occupation, improbably found refuge close to one another in the 1930’s and during World War II.
"Two Sides of Survival" Online Screening
Produced by USC Shoah Foundation, the award-winning Two Sides of Survival brings together stories from the East and West, chronicling how Jews who fled the Nazis in Europe, and Chinese who were threatened by Japanese occupation, improbably found refuge close to one another in the 1930’s and during World War II.
Buy ticket (Use discount code "Shoah Foundation" at checkout)
Building Bridges
Twenty years after the deadliest terrorist attack ever committed on U.S. soil, have we gained enough perspective to evaluate the impact of 9/11 on our society and heal the wounds of its aftermath? USC Shoah Foundation Finci-Viterbi Executive Director Stephen Smith joins leaders from New Ground, a Muslim-Jewish partnership for change; 30 Years After, an Iranian-American Jewish organization; and the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles for a discussion about the legacy of the September 11 attacks.