Nicholas Bredie (PhD candidate in Literature and Creative Writing, USC) conducted research to contribute to a hybrid work of fiction and non-fiction centered around the life history of his great aunt, who was murdered in 1945 in the Neuengamme concentration camp.

In this lecture, Barnabas Balint—PhD candidate in History, Magdalen College, University of Oxford, UK, and 2021-2022 Breslauer, Rutman, and Anderson Research Fellow—examines how the identities of this interwar generation were formed in times of crisis for the Jewish community, how their roles and agency in society changed, and how the institutions they were connected to reacted to persecution. He analyzes the subjective and personal ways young people experienced their age during the Holocaust in Hungary.

In recounting the past, Holocaust survivors deliberately or unconsciously craft the stories they recount about the Shoah. Whether through literature, memoirs, or testimony, survivors shape stories about the past while signaling what remains unsaid. Deferred memories - stories told many decades after the events occurred - often address issues that survivors did not dare or could not bear to recount earlier.

"It's impossible to describe the euphoria, the happiness that we finally, finally are coming home." Moshe Shamir survived slave labor camps and a ghetto in Transnistria. He was on his way to Palestine in 1947 when British border patrol diverted his ship to Cyprus and placed him in an internment camp. He was still in that camp on Friday, May 14, 1948 when he learned of the establishment of the State of Israel. 

Watch her full testimony Read Vladka Meed's remarkable story of resistance

"When I look up [to] the dome, and the flag, I choke up — every morning!" In honor of Jewish American Heritage Month, we salute Tom Lantos, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1981-2008.     Watch Tom Lantos’ full testimony. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grX4jkVJfPA  

Herbert Zipper, a Vienna-born conductor and composer, was imprisoned in Dachau in 1938 and 1939. He describes how prisoners found humanity in poetry and music.

Steve Acre was 9 years old during the Farhud, a Nazi-inspired pogrom in Baghdad in June, 1941. He recalls the Muslim neighbor who protected his family.

Ruth Pearl was six years old during the Farhud, a Nazi-inspired pogrom in Baghdad in June, 1941. She recalls her family's scramble to safety.

Elizabeth Spitz's father was a member of the Jewish Council in Satu Mare. On Shavuot 1944, he undertook an operation to provide challah to all the residents.

June 8, 2022, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff visited USC Shoah Foundation and learned about our Dimension in Testimony program. While there, he got the opportunity to engage with Pinchas Gutter’s interactive biography as well as talk to the real Pinchas via Zoom. Elex Michaelson of KTTV Fox News 11 interviewed the Second Gentleman during his visit. Read more about Doug Emhoff's visit.

Eugenia Adler was 17 at the start of World War II. She survived the Warsaw Ghetto and Auschwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek concentration camps, and spent time fighting with the partisans. In this clip, she recalls finding shelter with a frightened horse as Germany bombed Warsaw in September 1939. More clips from survivors on the beginning of World War II: Rosette Baronoff on the Breakout of War David Bayer remembers the Invasion of Poland

George reflects on the importance of learning from the Holocaust and working to make the world a better place.

At the inaugural Scholar Lab online lecture series event, held September 14, 2022, MacArthur Grant-winner Dr. Josh Kun of USC presents commentary, music and archival recordings in his exploration of the Nazi’s use of music as a soundtrack of terror. UCLA’s Dr. Todd Presner, winner of the Digital Media and Learning Prize from the MacArthur Foundation/HASTAC, presents a computational analysis of the language survivors use to describe antisemitism in Visual History Archive testimony.  Discussion moderated by Dr.

This moderated discussion features Dr. Jonathan Judaken of Rhodes College and Dr. Jeffrey Veidlinger of the University of Michigan, both the members of the Scholar Lab on Antisemitism program. As part of the discussion, Dr. Judaken and Dr. Veidlinger present on their research projects examining how major theorists of antisemitism understand its underlying causes and what prominent writers and thinkers in the historical western tradition had written about Jews, respectively, focusing on what we can learn about antisemitism from these writings. The discussion is moderated by Dr.

Held on November 16, 2022, this moderated discussion features Dr. Mehnaz Afridi of Manhattan College and Dr. Sara Lipton of Stony Brook University, who are members of USC Shoah Foundation’s Scholar Lab on Antisemitism program. As part of the discussion, Dr. Afridi and Dr. Lipton present on their research projects examining antisemitism in the Arab world and representations of Jews in medieval Christian sermons, respectively, focusing on the insights they gained into the causes, manifestations and consequences of antisemitism through history and in relation to religion.

Following remarks by USC President Carol Folt and Finci-Viterbi Executive Director Dr. Robert Williams, this discussion and live demo event feature a panel discussion moderated by USC Shoah Foundation's Dr. Kori Street, demonstration of the new features, and opportunities to ask questions and learn from testimony. The VHA redesign, part of the Lee Liberman Visual History Archive Program was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Lee Liberman Foundation, Koret Foundation, Crown Family Philanthropies and others.