Like many who support USC Shoah Foundation, Linda Wimmer was drawn to the stories of survivors and the way the Institute gives their stories both a home and a platform from which to be shared. However, her connection to the Institute is more profound than passive appreciation. In 1995, Linda’s husband Jim shared with her an article in their local Allentown, Pennsylvania, newspaper discussing Steven Spielberg’s mission to collect testimony of Holocaust survivors and witnesses. Linda immediately knew that she wanted to participate.

When Marc Haves was growing up during the ’50s and ’60s in the Five Towns, a predominantly Jewish area on Long Island, one subject didn’t seem to come up during family gatherings, or in the history lessons at school, or even during conversations at his reform temple.

In October 1942, when Nathan Drew and his wife Helen heard rumors that Nazis would liquidate the Łomźa Ghetto in Poland in which they lived, they escaped to Warsaw, avoiding by mere hours the forced removal of over 8,000 Jews to the Zambrow transit camp. In Warsaw, Nathan and Helen used false identification documents to live in the open as “counterfeit Poles,” hiding their Jewish heritage while navigating the harsh realities of Nazi occupation.

Throughout the nearly 150 interviews she conducted of Holocaust survivors for USC Shoah Foundation, Nancy Fisher’s philosophy was simple: “I did my best to be a human being connecting with another human being.”

Like memory itself, the video testimony within the Visual History Archive is not permanent. Data degradation resulting from the gradual decay of storage media can result in the eventual breakdown of video and audio, rendering a testimony worthless, even in digital form. The Institute’s newly-launched Forever Fund will provide means to ensure that testimonies will live on in whatever form the future may necessitate.

For producer Richard Hall, supporting USC Shoah Foundation’s efforts to collect testimony related to the 1994 Genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda is a natural extension of his work as a documentary filmmaker. “A good interview really connects you to the humanity of others. We are all the same, but we don’t really feel it until we have the chance to bridge the language barrier and understand context for another’s experience.”

As a longtime donor to USC Shoah Foundation, Pennsylvania-based The Snider Foundation has supported a variety of Institute programs, including the Countering Antisemitism Through Testimony initiative. According to Jay Snider, President of The Snider Foundation, “Our Dad [founder Ed Snider] grew up in the shadow of the Holocaust, and the survival of the Jewish people was of utmost importance to him.

We join a worldwide community to celebrate the recent 100th birthday of Ludmila Page, a Holocaust survivor who helped bring the story of Oskar Schindler to light together with her late husband Paul (Poldek Pfefferberg). The two of them and more than 1,200 other Jews survived the Holocaust thanks to Schindler.

Sol Gringlas's work as a tailor allowed him to receive extra portions of food he could share with his brother.

USC Shoah Foundation’s Immersive Innovations team headed to Mexico in March of this year to spend a week with Holocaust survivors Dolly and Julio Botton. The couple, who have been together for more than 50 years, were part of the Institute’s first collection of videotaped testimonies back in the 1990s.

10AM – 11AM PDT | 1PM - 2PM EDT Internationally acclaimed scholar and historian, Professor Yehuda Bauer, joins the Echoes & Reflections community from Israel for a special presentation on the Holocaust and other genocides. While the Holocaust is a unique historical event, the study of this history can inform the study of other mass atrocities. During this webinar, Professor Bauer will talk about similarities and differences between the Holocaust and other genocides, and what can be learned and applied from a study of the Holocaust to a study of other genocides.

This webinar features We Share The Same Sky, USC Shoah Foundation’s first podcast, which tells the personal story of a granddaughter’s decade-long journey to retrace her grandmother’s story of survival and the impact it has on her understanding of self and the present world.

Julia remembers her family's prewar life as nomadic Roma in Germany.

As the world shelters in place and struggles for justice, the arts are more important than ever. Join Visions and Voices as they kick off the 2020–21 academic year and their 15th season with a dynamic and inspirational evening of music, dance, spoken word, comedy, and more. This special event will amplify the role of the arts as a means of connection, resilience, healing, and social change. Attendees will also be invited to join the artists “backstage” for an epic virtual dance party starring you.

Past President of the American Academy of Pediatrics (2018) Colleen Kraft is best known for her advocacy for humane treatment of migrant children at the border. Her work to explain to the public the harms to young children caused by the “zero tolerance” policy, which included separation of children from parents, helped to mobilize advocates across the political spectrum to end this policy.

Scholar, activist, playwright, artist, and one of the original organizers of Black Lives Matter Funmilola Fagbamila will perform The Intersection: Woke Black Folk, her acclaimed one-woman stage play about the complexities of Black political identity and how humans navigate difference. The Intersection premiered at the Pan African Film and Arts Festival in Los Angeles in 2018 and has toured across the Netherlands, England, France, and Brazil.

Safer at Home is an online exhibition of objects from the ONE Archives Collection at the USC Libraries organized by its curator, Alexis Bard Johnson. Safer at Home is an invitation to examine the many facets of home as well as what safety means and looks like for LGBTQ populations—both past and present. The selected items resonate with and reflect on the idea of “safer at home.” They act as a mirror—bringing the past into the present and offering perspective on what is happening today.

Asian communities in Los Angeles abound with diversity. A multitude of ethnicities and nationalities from across the Asian continent are present here. Residents have sought fresh new opportunities, arriving as refugees, economic migrants, students, or professionals. In celebration of these communities, USC PAM presents seven dynamic female contemporary artists who embody the vitality of our city’s Asian populations. Each of these artists speak to the fluidity of an individual’s sense of place and self.

This interactive, 65-minute comedic performance mashes up campaign rallies, church revivals, and solo theater shows to uncover the history of voting, what it means to run for local office, and the impact artists can have on democracy.

There are few artists who possess as sophisticated an understanding of the music business, the entertainment industry, and racial politics in America as Chuck D, and even fewer speakers who can command an audience like he does while breaking it down. Sharing his powerful experiences, observations, and advice, the leader and co-founder of the legendary rap group Public Enemy, author of two critically acclaimed books, political activist, publisher, radio host, and producer will address politics, rap and soul music, race, technology, and more.

Join us for a livestream discussion with Sheryl Cababa (VP of Strategy, Substantial) & Jenna Leventhal (Deputy Director of Education, USC Shoah Foundation) via Zoom. USC Shoah Foundation collaborated with Substantial to design and build IWalk, a digital educational platform to bring in-person historical locations to life. We will discuss:

From visiting family in China during summer breaks growing up, I became acutely aware of the devastation and suffering that occurred during the Japanese occupation of our hometown of Nanjing. Museums, movies, television programs, and commemorative art kept the Nanjing Massacre alive in public memory. But what I also noticed, from visits to museums, shuffling through television channels, and discussions with family, was the seeming absence of Chinese resistance.