IWitness regional consultant, Brandon Barr has been a Language Arts teacher in Chicago Public School district for the last ten years. This year, he will be teaching 6th grade Language Arts at Mark Twain Elementary. In January 2015, he participated in the "Past is Present" commemoration that marked the 70th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz in Poland.

As I start a new school year in a new school teaching a new grade level, I find it slightly ironic that the first theme that my textbook series addresses is courage. As I start another school year, I have thought deeply about courage and mix of emotions that come into play that very first day of school. Many may not readily admit it, but the first day of the school year for both teachers and students is filled nervousness and unease. A first impression is extremely important, and a good first day can set the tone for a very productive school year.

Seeing new students starting their fall semester at USC – my recent alma mater – gives me a strange feeling. I have worked at USC Shoah Foundation during most of my career as an USC undergraduate student, and now I am about to step away from my favorite university and nonprofit organization. I’ve learned invaluable life lessons from video testimony as well as my wonderful coworkers.

Professor Alejandro Baer, now from the University of Minnesota, was first attracted to USC Shoah Foundation in 2000, when it was titled Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation and was deep into its project to collect 50,000 testimonies of Holocaust survivors around the world.

A Modern Germany history course taught by Longwood University Professor Melissa Kravetz received an honorable mention for “Interesting Assignment” from the H-German online network for its IWitness-based final assignment.

Kurt Moses reflects on the issue of hate and returning to Germany with his family after the war. Although it was difficult to speak to Germans from his generation, he remembers feeling more comfortable speaking and interacting with the German youth at the time.