On April 17, 1975, the city of Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge, triggering a four-year genocide. In commemoration, USC Shoah Foundation is spotlighting its Cambodia-based learning activities for high school students.

When USC Shoah Foundation’s Manuk Avedikyan was researching the Institute’s new oral-history collection of Armenian Genocide survivors, something unusual caught his eye.

USC Shoah Foundation is saddened to learn of the passing of Aaron Elster, a Holocaust survivor whose steadfast refusal to counter hate with more hate will echo for years to come. He was 85.

Through their testimonies on the Visual History Archive and The 1939 Society websites, Holocaust survivors and rescuers have inspired middle and high school students from across the nation and eight countries outside of the United States to become “Messengers of Memory,” the theme of this year’s Annual Holocaust Art and Writing Contest sponsored by Chapman University and The 1939 Society.