The USC Shoah Foundation mourns the loss of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer, a Holocaust survivor who fled Nazi Germany without her parents at the age of 10 and went on to become a renowned and beloved sex therapist and media personality. She was 96 years old.
In 1994, the USC Shoah Foundation launched an unprecedented effort to record, preserve, and share the testimonies of Holocaust survivors. Over the past 30 years, we have built a world-class institute anchored in their voices. Today, as Holocaust memory fades and we confront new forces of hatred and antisemitism, the promise we made to survivors 30 years ago demands renewed action. We continue to bear witness for generations to come and hope you will join us with shared purpose and urgency for our Ambassadors for Humanity Gala this fall.
We mourn the passing of Dana Schwartz, 89, a Holocaust survivor and dedicated interviewer for the USC Shoah Foundation, who died on May 9 in Los Angeles.
Dana, who later became a teacher and marriage and family therapist, was four when the Second World War started. She and her mother escaped the Lwów ghetto and survived in hiding.
In a five-hour interview with the USC Shoah Foundation, Justus Rosenberg refers to himself as a “small fry,” “a cog,” an unimportant person. And perhaps it was for this reason that for decades, the Bard College literature professor hadn’t let on—to his colleagues, to his students, and even, for a time, to his wife—that he had fought and outwitted the Nazis during World War II to save thousands from persecution.
Debates about terms are a luxury for times of peace. The future of our democracy requires that we understand all forms of antisemitism and emphasize unequivocally that it has no place in America.
The USC Shoah Foundation mourns the passing of Dr. Abner Delman, a cardiologist and longtime supporter of the USC Shoah Foundation. He was 93.
Abner's wife, Ilse-Lore Delman, was a Holocaust survivor who fled her hometown to escape Nazi persecution at a young age. She spent three years in hiding. In 1998, Ilse recorded her testimony with the USC Shoah Foundation, and soon after, the couple became involved with the organization.
The USC Shoah Foundation is proud to co-convene "Archives in/of Transit: Historical Perspectives from the 1930s to the Present," a closed, in-person workshop for scholars that will take place on June 28 and 29, 2024.
On January 23, 2002, Ruth Pearl dreamt that her son, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, was scared and in trouble. In her dream, she told him she would bring him tea and take care of him. She woke up in a panic and sent an email to Daniel, who was on assignment in Karachi, Pakistan.
“I said, ‘Danny, this is a dream that I had. Please humor me and answer this email immediately.’ He never did,” Ruth said in an interview with the USC Shoah Foundation in 2014.