During the Institute's inaugural summer William P. Lauder Internship Program, about two-dozen young people came to USC Shoah Foundation from across the country to participate in the intensive program, which focused on the causes and impacts of injustice and the ways an individual can respond.

At a time when the term “fake news” has become pervasive – and when rising nationalism worldwide has had an especially pronounced effect on Central Europe – USC Shoah Foundation’s representatives in the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary are introducing high school students to a suite of new IWitness activities that use testimony to provide a deeper understanding of propaganda.

Andreas Launer, who took the position in August of 2017, wanted to see firsthand what he’d heard about the Institute’s growing array of interactive projects, such as Dimensions in Testimony and the Institute's VR films.

Up and down, up and down. All day, every day.

From the base of a stone quarry, inmates of the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria were compelled by Nazis during the Holocaust to climb 186 steps to the top, lugging boulders that would be used for German state construction projects.

Among those forced to take part in this sadistic form of slave labor was Edward Mosberg.

All this week, 25 middle and high school students from across the United States will be at USC Shoah Foundation to gain a deeper understanding of the causes and impacts of injustice and to learn about becoming active participants in civil society.

It’s hard to imagine I’m even typing this sentence, but an avowed Holocaust denier is the official Republican nominee for an upcoming congressional election in Illinois, while a man whose website warns of a “Jewish supremacy” is running in California.

Andrew Burian survived both the Birkenau and Mauthausen concentration camps as well as the infamous death march evacuations of each camp. Today, he uses the lessons of his childhood as a catalyst to fuel his lasting dedication to Holocaust education and remembrance.