Ellie Ferd has a pretty clear understanding of the Holocaust:

“It’s not human,” the 12-year-old said. “It’s not something that should happen.”

It’s a sentiment that was on her mind when it came time to plan her upcoming bat mitzvah. As part of their coming-of-age ritual, many young people are tasked with performing a good deed in the community. The great granddaughter of two Holocaust survivors, Ellie knew she wanted to find a project that was personal for her, something that would touch her family, and she knew she would find it by somehow connecting the Holocaust with today’s world.

“It has something to do with my family, where they were, how they got to America, how I came into being,” she said.

So when a friend had a connection to the USC Shoah Foundation, Ellie was intrigued. The Institute’s IWitness Video Challenge would be the perfect fit. The Challenge – a multimedia activity that is part of the Institute’s IWitness educational website– also has a contest in the United States and Canada that offers student’s Ellie’s age the chance to turn what they’ve learned watching testimony into action to improve their community.

After viewing about a dozen testimonies, Ellie, a student at Beverly Vista School in Beverly Hills, found her topic. She would explore how bullying is a thread that connects the worst evil of history with what kids her age often go through on a smaller scale.

“She watched one testimony and said, ‘It’s a form of bullying,’” said Ellie’s mom, Danit Ferd. “From there, we had a discussion on what it means to be bullied and it relates to the Holocaust. The Jews were bullied. The genocide was the extreme end of bullying. That’s how she came up with the concept.”

The video Ellie produced features quotes from the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa.

“My mission is to spread the word that not only kids are being bullied, but grownups too,” she says in the video. “If we speak and let our voice be heard, we can make a difference, big and small, in someone’s life.”

Ellie’s mom said that by watching the testimonies in IWitness, Ellie was able to gain a deeper understanding of history.

“To see an actual person speak to you about their experience in such a difficult time, as opposed to reading it in a newspaper or book, you can connect with them, see their body language, hear the emotions in their voice,” she said. “You have a personal connection with their experience.”

USC Shoah Foundation offered Ellie the opportunity to serve on the IWitness Challenge judging panel instead of competing, which she accepted. Although her project won’t be eligible to win, she gets to be the only student judge on a regional panel.