Lukas Binder’s civilian service commitment to his native Austria brought him to the United States—and to USC Shoah Foundation. Originally from Mödling in Lower Austria, Binder now resides in Los Angeles while he fulfills his nine-month period of duty. “I help out wherever there is a need,” he says of tasks that include creating and editing videos, as well as helping assemble the book commemorating the founding of USC Shoah Foundation 20 years ago.

From July 25 to July 26, 1941, 3,800 Jews were killed during a pogrom by Lithuanians in Kaunas, Lithuania. As a child Masha Loen witnessed the pogrom in her hometown after her family tried to escape to Russia and were sent back to Kaunas by Russian soldiers.