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.
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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.
It Took 50 Years For Father and Son to Tell This Story Together
On an autumn day in 1998, Joel Poremba waited in a bedroom with his wife and infant son as his father sat in his Southern California living room with an interviewer from USC Shoah Foundation. This was the first time Nathan Poremba was talking about how he survived the Holocaust as a child.
Restless and curious, Joel snuck out and poked his head into the living room doorway.
Joel Poremba Family Photos
Final Account Screening
Recently released by Focus Features, Final Account, the documentary from Participant Media, shares never-before-seen interviews with the last living generation of people to have participated in Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. Filmed over a 10-year period, the timely documentary raises questions about authority, conformity, complicity, perpetration, national identity, and responsibility, as men and women—ranging from former SS members to civilians—reckon with their memories, perceptions, and personal appraisals of their role in the Holocaust.
My Name Is Sara Film Screening and Panel Discussion
In partnership with Aspen Film, the event series opens with a screening and special panel discussion of the award-winning feature film My Name Is Sara. The film is based on the true story of 13-year-old Sara Góralnik, who, after escaping a Jewish Ghetto in Poland and losing her family at the outset of the Holocaust, hides in plain sight, passing as an Orthodox Christian, and ultimately survives against all odds.
Rachael Cerrotti, author of We Share the Same Sky, in conversation with Lisa Hofheimer
We Share the Same Sky weaves together the stories of these two young women--Hana as a refugee who remains one step ahead of the Nazis at every turn, and Rachael, whose insatiable curiosity to touch the past guides her into the lives of countless strangers, bringing her love and tragic loss. Throughout the course of her twenties, Hana's history becomes a guidebook for Rachael in how to live a life empowered by grief.