Two years into USC Shoah Foundation and Kigali Genocide Memorial’s IWitness in Rwanda project, hundreds of students and teachers across Rwanda have been exposed to IWitness and talks are underway to incorporate it into the national curriculum.

Holocaust survivor testimony is what sparked Rachel Deblinger’s interest in studying American postwar Holocaust memory. For her dissertation, she researched other groups for whom testimony was equally eye-opening: American Jews and Jewish communal organizations in the aftermath of World War II.

USC Shoah Foundation hands off books on the Armenian Genocide to USC Doheny Library’s Holocaust and Genocide Studies collection. Lynn Sipe, senior bibliographer and curator for the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Collection for Doheny Library, visited the Institute June 13 to pick up books and other resources on the Armenian Genocide

Close and distant readings of the Visual History Archive by Todd Presner, professor of Germanic languages, comparative literature, and Jewish Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, for the Spring 2014 issue of PastForward.

The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) assisted in the operation of displaced persons installations in Deggendorf, Germany, following World War II. Steffi Aghassi describes the conditions in the Deggendorf displaced persons camp and shares her incredible story as to what she personally did to change the status quo.

Summary: Free and open to the public, monthly Institute visits give guests a chance to explore the life stories of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides and to discover how their memories are being used to overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry. Description:

Скрізь в Україні відеосвідчення з Архіву Візуальної історії надихають дітей до створення ілюстрацій, що представляють справжні випадки дискримінації під час тоталітарних режимів. Малюючи ці ілюстрації кожен та кожна з юних громадян України намагаються здобути місце у щорічному літньому таборі, присвяченому формуванню толерантності та цінуванню етнокультурного розмаїття країни.

Now available for viewing, video of President Obama's acceptance speech at the 2014 Ambassadors for Humanity gala held May 7, 2014. Also included are speeches from USC President C. L. Max Nikias, Holocaust survivor Celina Biniaz, school teacher Michelle Clark, and Institute founder Steven Spielberg. All worth watching!

History Professor Emily Musil Church is teaming up with USC Shoah Foundation associate director of education – evaluation and scholarship Amy M. Carnes, Ph.D., to bring seven students on their first trip to Rwanda on the second annual Problems Without Passports trip.

After completing an intense two-week introductory session at the University of Southern California, seven students and two professors are ready to begin this summer’s Problems Without Passports trip to Rwanda.

Rose Burizhiza speaks on the discrimination she faced in school before the genocide began in Rwanda. Rose’s testimony is featured in the IWitness activity, Information Quest: The Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

High school students from Sopron, Hungary, have created a traveling exhibition to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the deportations of Jews from Hungary during World War II, drawing from USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive for their research.

Gerda Abraham describes being a refugee and living in a displaced persons camp in Algeria.

June 20 is World Refugee Day, dedicated to raising awareness about refugees throughout the world, a day on which I inevitably always look back on the formative years of my life. In 1991, my family and I were forced out of our home in Croatia because of our ethnic origin, and we began a life of exile, torn from everything known and dear to us and forced to swim in the uncharted waters of life as a refugee. Our lives had been changed drastically; a life of abundance had become a life of misery. 

Hana Pravda speaks on the various performances, art and culture that were produced in the Theresienstadt (Terezín) ghetto. Pravda, an actress, performed in many plays, in which the scripts were smuggled into the ghetto.

In January 2014, four scholars from the “Holocaust Geographies Collaborative”—an international, interdisciplinary group of researchers evaluated the link between personal testimony, the index of the archive and geography.

Daniel Hrbrek is the director and manager of Švandovo Theatre, pedagogue of acting, direction on DAMU Academy in Prague. Hrbrek has been involved in theater for over twenty years including acting and artistic director for companies and theaters. In 1999 he became the Artistic Director of Švandovo Theatre, one of the oldest Prague theatres (established in 1881). Besides his directing work he also writes stage adaptations and his own plays including Shoah, which the english adapation titled The Good and the True, will open off-Broadway for an eight-week limited engagement.

I was born and brought up in a university town in the Czech Republic called Olomouc. It had a small Jewish community.   My father is a writer and academic.  Five years ago he interviewed Milos Dobry who was a prominent member of the Olomouc Jewish community and a long-term Holocaust survivor.  His story was fascinating - about how he and his brother had survived Terezín and Auschwitz and how Milos had gone on to have a successful career as an inventor and sports personality.  I went to meet Milos Dobry personally to further interview him about his history.

Judith Agular describes anti-Jewish restrictions including being forced to live in a “Yellow-star House,” in Budapest, Hungary.

Jeffrey Shandler, a Visual History Archive researcher and former Institute Fellow at the USC Shoah Foundation, will return to USC this November to participate in the Memory, Media and Technology: Exploring the Trajectories of Schindler’s List international conference.

USC Trustee Andrew Viterbi PhD ’62 and his wife, Erna, have given $5 million to USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education. It is the largest gift the Institute has received since it became part of USC in 2006.

International ConferenceUniversity of Southern CaliforniaUSC Radisson Conference RoomsSecond Floor, Radisson Hotel Los Angeles Midtown at USC3540 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90007

Emmanuel Muhinda describes the persecution of Tutsi and anti-Tutsi propaganda he witnessed before the genocide started in April 1994. His testimony is featured in the IWitness activity, Information Quest: The Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

The Problems Without Passports class hit the ground running in Kigali, Rwanda, spending their first four days in the country visiting genocide memorials and meeting with survivor support groups.

Echoes and Reflections, the multimedia Holocaust education program of which USC Shoah Foundation is a founding partner, introduced a brand-new website and updated teacher’s guide that includes new content and reflects the most current pedagogy for teaching about the Holocaust.

Henry Laurant remembers the first time he experienced antisemitism in Nazi Germany. He was targeted by other children who were influenced by Nazi rhetoric. His testimony is featured in the multimedia professional development program, Echoes and Reflections.