It’s a story my grandfather never told me, something that I only heard and understood later, years after my mother recounted it. In 1943, after his first wife and children were killed, my grandfather, Sam Wasserman, participated in one of the only successful mass escapes from a Nazi extermination camp. He and hundreds of other prisoners, overwhelmed and killed several guards and escaped the Sobibor death camp in Poland. My grandfather eluded capture, joined a band of partisans fighting the Nazis, and shortly after surviving the war, met the woman who would become my grandmother.

Inge Sack de Kord describes what she and her family went through during the years of war to obtain visas to leave Europe while her father was at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Alfred Fischer remembers his voyage through different countries before arriving and settling in Chile with his wife Herta Eisenreich, also a Holocaust survivor.

Eva Klein remembers how she felt towards Chile and their citizens who welcomed her when she arrived to the country in 1947.

Paulina Bohorodzaner remembers the beginning of her working life in Chile, her adaptation to a new culture with her husband and the start of their new business.

Gustavo Seelenberger reflects on the aftermath of his experience during the war and what he went through during those years from a spiritual perspective.

In this clip from her testimony, Jamalida Begum describes how Myanmar authorities murdered her interpreter and pursued her in retaliation for her speaking with UN representatives and the press about her plight.

A public lecture by Samuel Kassow (Trinity College).

Through their testimonies on the Visual History Archive and The 1939 Society websites, Holocaust survivors and rescuers have inspired middle and high school students from across the nation and eight countries outside of the United States to become “Messengers of Memory,” the theme of this year’s Annual Holocaust Art and Writing Contest sponsored by Chapman University and The 1939 Society.

Sedda Antekelian and Manuk Avedikyan will talk about IWitness, an online education resource developed by USC Shoah Foundation, that provides access to eyewitness testimonies of the Armenian genocide and classroom activities for educators.

This is footage from Aaron Elster's testimony for the New Dimensions in Testimony project. He was one of the Institute's earliest interviewees. In this clip, Aaron Elster gives a message to future generations.

Born Nachman Aaron Elster in 1933, in Poland, Elster escaped persecution and came to the United States in June of 1947. There, he gained an education in Chicago, served in the armed forces during the Korean War, married and had children. To remain in touch with his heritage and to spread awareness about his experiences and lessons learned from the Holocaust, he served as vice president and gave regular talks at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center.

When USC Shoah Foundation’s Manuk Avedikyan was researching the Institute’s new oral-history collection of Armenian Genocide survivors, something unusual caught his eye.

On April 17, 1975, the city of Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge, triggering a four-year genocide. In commemoration, USC Shoah Foundation is spotlighting its Cambodia-based learning activities for high school students.

A handful of witnesses in the genocide trial against former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt appear in Pamela Yates’ film “500 Years,” but her cameras captured the entire proceeding. The case is considered a landmark in human rights law.

To mark the 75th anniversary of the revolt, USC Shoah Foundation is sharing the story of the recently departed Sol Liber. One of the last living fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising until his passing last month, Liber was also among USC Shoah Foundation’s first interviewees.

In this clip from her 2017 testimony, Anneliese recalls telling her grandchildren how antisemitic vandalism is now a crime. In her youth during the Nazi regime, such violence was condoned by the state.

The former goaltender for a well-known Rwandan team literally owes his life to soccer. Now he uses soccer to promote tolerance and unity. This year, he was recognized by Queen Elizabeth.

In my role as part of USC Shoah Foundation’s Education Department, I have the honor of working with our team members both in the United States and around the world to create localized educational content using genocide survivor testimony. As a former classroom teacher and a lifelong believer in the importance of experiential learning, I was fortunate to take part in three IWalks in Budapest, Hungary, Prague, Czechia, and Warsaw, Poland while on a recent vacation.

Although the Armenian Genocide is recognized in states and cities across the country, the issue remains unresolved on the national level. During a talk on April 19, Julien Zarifian outlined several reasons why the issue remains thorny in Washington D.C., more than 100 years after the genocide that left more than 1 million Armenians slaughtered.

Christopher Browning, the 2018 Sara and Asa Shapiro Scholar in Residence at USC Shoah Foundation’s Center for Advanced Genocide Research, talks about the changing attitudes about witness testimony and how the process of gathering it has changed since the end of World War II.

The virtual reality film about Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter won for best branded 360 video and took home a People's Voice award for best narrative experience in the online film and video category.

In this clip from Haiastan Terzian's testimony, she describes how she was in hiding with several other Armenians in the American Consulate during the Armenian Genocide.

Rare primary-source photographs that focus on the life and culture of the Armenian people before the Armenian Genocide and the resiliency among the ensuing diaspora have been integrated into USC Shoah Foundation’s award-winning IWitness educational website. The addition comes thanks to a new partnership with Project SAVE Armenian Photograph Archives, whose mission is to collect, document, preserve, and present the historic and modern photographic record of Armenians and Armenian heritage.

Frieda E. Roos van Hessen was born on April 24, 1915 – the day the Armenian Genocide started – and survived the Holocaust by going into hiding in her native Netherlands. This week, she turned 103 surrounded by friends and neighbors at the same place she celebrates every year: the Olive Garden restaurant.

In this clip from Frieda Roos van Hessen's testimony, the opera singer and Holocaust survivor recalls her ill-fated attempt at a career in the diamond business when she was an 18 year-old music student.

USC Shoah Foundation’s documentary about the 1937 Nanjing Massacre tells the story through the lens of a survivor’s relationship with her granddaughter and great-grandson.

One student listened to the testimonies of those imprisoned at an internment camp. Another wrote about people stranded in the middle of the ocean attempting to escape the genocide in the Congo. Two others will act out a scene where two inmates of a concentration camp dream of the food they would eat if they were elsewhere. The class will read excerpts of the 10 plays at the Parkside Performance Cafe 3 p.m. Friday.

Out of concern for their physical safety, four of the five interviewees remained anonymous and were filmed in silhouette. The fifth, 31-year-old Martha Nyawal James, recounted her extraordinary story of survival.