Wolf Gruner, Director of the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research, has published two new books about discriminatory policies against two distinct groups: the Jews in the annexed territories of the Third Reich and the indigenous people of Bolivia in the 19th century.

March 25, 2015 at 6:00 pmJoyce J. Cammilleri HallIn Nazi concentration camps, the Gulag, and Japanese war camps, deportees wrote cooking recipes. Hundreds of those recipes were copied in small notebooks by starving human beings of all origins - women, men, young, old, French, Russian, American - who took huge risks to write and keep them. Telling about these objects of survival, Imaginary Feasts explores a phenomenon of incredible resistance. Until now, no study or publication has ever been made on these objects. 

Meg Lipstone and her son, Jack, 13, are eager to start spreading the word about IWitness as part of USC Shoah Foundation’s new IWitness Advocacy program.

Erica Emihovich recalls the Anschluss and how Austrians gathered in the streets to see Hitler and the Nazi party. She describes how fearful she felt when she saw the Nazis marching down the street and how her entire life changed after the occupation.

Leon Leyson describes working in Oskar Schindler’s factory and how Schindler treated all of his employees with such respect. This testimony clip is featured in the IWitness Video Challenge activity.

USC Shoah Foundation is pleased to provide closed captioning for IWitness activities and the IWitness Video Challenge, thanks to a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

Three students from Budapest wrote short stories and poems inspired by testimony that they hope will teach others the importance of acceptance and remembrance.

Ian McAvoy, an English teacher at University City High School in San Diego, discovered the IWitness Video Challenge and was so impressed that he invited staff from USC Shoah Foundation to give a presentation on IWitness to the other teachers at his school. One of those teachers, Susan Bristol, found it such a powerful experience that she adopted IWitness in her own classroom.

Most students are probably familiar with the iconic image of an immigrant sailing into New York Harbor under the welcoming arms of the Statue of Liberty. The activity "New Beginnings – Journey to America" introduces students to real people who did just that.

Paula Tencer describes her experiences of immigrating to the United States and the meeting of family when she arrived. Testimony clip is featured in the IWitness activity, New Beginnings – Journey to America.   

We are hiding from the fact that subsequent to Haman, Hitler was successful in carrying out the genocide of the Jews and the survivors of the Holocaust are better examples than Mordechai or Esther.

Coenraad Rood reflects on the importance of tolerance, respect and encourages younger people to always stand up to injustice.

Nanjing Massacre survivor Guixiang Chen reflects on speaking to Japanese students about her experience and the students react to her testimony.

With IWitness in Rwanda entering its third year, organizing partners and educators came together in Kigali last week for a reflective workshop that revealed the incredible impact IWitness has already had on students and teachers.

Dr. Gardner and Dr. Immordino-Yang will engage in conversation about the art and science of teaching and learning in the 21st century. In an age where information is distributed and consumed widely, the need to develop critical thinkers who behave responsibly in global society grows. In this landscape, empathy becomes an important learning skill, and scientific research holds the potential to inform the ways in which empathy undergirds ethics. In this landscape, how should scientific researchers translate their work for teachers and learners?

To commemorate International Women’s Day, March 8, 2015, listen to the testimonies of 10 amazing women from the Visual History Archive who all “made it happen,” from standing up to injustice to saving lives during the Holocaust to preserving the memories of genocide victims and many other courageous acts.

  Ruth Brand talks about the decision to fast on Yom Kippur—also known as the Day of Atonement—in Auschwitz II-Birkenau as a form of resistance.    

On March 8, 2015 there will be events all over the world celebrating the achievements of women for International Women’s Day. This year’s theme Make it Happen encourages action for advancing women’s rights and also recognizing the incredible and courageous work women do in various industries throughout the world.

Jeannie Woods was the only person from her school in Fort Payne, Al., to travel to Poland for "Auschwitz: The Past is Present," but she made sure she wasn't the only one to experience it.

Charlotte Adelman reflects on the challenge of having to learn French in school after speaking only Yiddish in her home. However, she still remembers and even sings a Yiddish song that she learned as a child.

Gerda Klein reflects on daily life while imprisoned in the Merzdorf concentration camp a subsidiary camp of Gross Rosen. She describes her forced labor making textiles and also working alongside German citizens.

While most scholars listen to testimony for what survivors say about historical events and personal experiences, Isaac Bleaman studies how they say it.

Jack Pressman describes working at the Reichenau facility under false identity.

Sarah Welbel describes liberation from the Gablonz forced labor camp.

In February, I participated in an international conference titled Are we losing memory? Forgotten sites of Nazi forced labor in Central Europe. The event organized by the Terezin Initiative Institute and the North Bohemian Museum in Liberec brought together educators, researchers, archeologists and other experts from the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany to examine the disconnect between history of forced labor and regional history caused by the ethnic cleansing and population transfers after WWII in regions that were part of the German Reich.  

USC Shoah Foundation Executive Director Stephen Smith was invited to speak at the Council of American Jewish Museums (CAJM)’s annual conference and the Ararat Home of Los Angeles’s Armenian Genocide Centennial Commemoration.

On Tuesday, March 10, 2015, the USC Center for Advanced Genocide Research hosted a lecture from Dr. Peter Hayes who spoke before a packed room at USC on the complex relationship between anti-Semitism and homophobia exerted in Nazi-occupied territories during World War II. The Theodore Zev Weiss Holocaust Educational Foundation Professor at Northwestern University specializes in 20th-century German History, writing extensively on German industry under the Nazis. Monday's lecture, however, focused on the evolution of his views on a comparison that he was previously reluctant to address.

These resources make it possible for anyone to embark on the IWalks and hear the stories of survivors in the authentic locations where they experienced the Holocaust.

The research of these panelists sheds light on various challenges in mediating oral histories. Is it possible to mediate oral histories in an archive and respect the authenticity and nuance of individual narratives that fall into a larger narrative, for instance in an archive? Questions of translation, distortion, and interview methodology are explored to varying degrees by the work of these presenters. Is it possible to convey specific emotions across cultures, language, and identity?Chair: Karen JungblutPeg LeVine, Ph.D., Ed.D.Mark Zaurov, Ph.D.