September 10, 2010: the USC Shoah Foundation Institute hosted a panel discussion that addressed the role of testimony in the process of national mourning, transitional justice, and memorialization.

Venuste describes losing his daughter right before his eyes. Born: 1953 City of Birth: Kabagali (Gitarama, Rwanda) In hiding: Kicukiro (Kigali, Rwanda) Liberated by: Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) Liberation location: Nyanza (Kicukiro, Kigali, Rwanda)

This video shows select clips from survivors of the Holocaust, as well as other genocides that have occurred in recent history.

Phansy details how she was affected by losing both her parents and children during the genocide. Born: December 10, 1950City of Birth: Phnom Penh (Cambodia)Country of birth: CambodiaCooperatives: Kandal province (Cambodia); Pursat province (Cambodia)Liberated by: Vietnamese armed forcesLiberation location: Pursat province (Cambodia)  

April 19, 2012: For the Institute's Yom HaShoah Commemoration Event on Thursday, April 19, 2012, Father Patrick Desbois, a Catholic priest and author of The Holocaust by Bullets, gave a keynote address discussing his field research on identifying sites of mass executions in Ukraine. Students, community members, faculty, and staff gathered for a moving evening, which also included readings by USC students, live music, a candle lighting, and prayer.

April 16, 2012: Dr. Yehuda Bauer, one of the foremost authorities on the subject of the Holocaust, made an exclusive trip to Los Angeles to give the Institute's inaugural Yom Hashoah lecture. Bauer, who is the Institute's scholar-in-residence, discussed the roots of genocide and realistic approaches to overcoming it.

March 4, 2013: What can the Institute’s Visual History Archive teach us about other mediations of the Holocaust: how survivors tell their stories, how life performance and other media shape their narratives, or even how humor figures into remembrance? Rutgers University Professor Jeffrey Shandler, the Institute's Senior Fellow, explored such questions in a lecture titled “Interrogating the Index: Or, Reading the Archive against the Grain,” which gave a fresh look at the archive as more than a repository for testimony.

Six Holocaust survivors: Fred Katz, Esther Gever, Jacob Wiener, Eva Abraham-Podietz, Robert Behr, and Herbert Karliner, recount their personal experiences during the Kristallnacht Pogrom and the events that followed.This video compilation was created by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum with footage from the USC Shoah Foundation Institute’s archive. (Running time: 21.35)

Irene recounts her experience of being liberated by the British Army from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in April 1945. Irene Weiss was born Irene Traub on August 2, 1919, in Halmeu, a small Jewish community in Romania. In March 1944, Irene, her parents, and seven siblings were deported to the Szatmar ghetto in Transylvania where they stayed for two months. In June 1944, Irene was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau where she was separated from her parents, who would perish in the gas chambers, and began work as a forced laborer.

This exhibit features a series of interviews with witnesses of the pogrom that occurred on November 9-10, 1938, known as Kristallnacht, "Night of Broken Glass." Organized in partnership with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Seven Holocaust survivors and liberators share their perspectives and recollections of liberation. Click on the thumbnails to watch.

Martin relates his experience of being liberated from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in April 1945. Martin Aaron was born April 21, 1929, in Teresva, Czechoslovakia. Growing up in the nearby Jewish community of Sapanta, Romania, Martin recalls experiencing antisemitism, which intensified after Hungary annexed the area in 1940. In 1944, the Hungarians and Germans forced Martin, his parents, and five siblings to move into the Tacovo ghetto before they were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Kurt describes liberating survivors of a death march in May 1945, in Volary, Czechoslovakia, including his first encounter with his future wife, Gerda. Kurt Klein was born July 2, 1920, in Walldorf, Germany. As the Nazi persecution of German Jews intensified, Kurt’s parents decided to send him and his siblings to live with distant relatives in Buffalo, New York, where he worked in various jobs, including the printing business, trying to raise enough money to bring his parents to the United States. Kurt was drafted into the United States Army in 1943.

Gerda describes being liberated by the United States Army and encountering her future husband, U.S. Army Lt. Kurt Klein, in Volary, Czechoslovakia, in May 1945. Gerda Klein was born Gerda Weissmann on May 8, 1924, in Bielsko, Poland. Gerda and her brother, Arthur, grew up relatively unaware of the spread of Nazism, until Poland was invaded in 1939; soon after, Arthur was taken away on a transport. In April 1942, Gerda and her parents were ordered into the Bielsko ghetto.

Bernard relates his experience as an American GI liberating the Gunskirchen concentration camp in Austria in May 1945. Bernard Bermack was born April 3, 1922, in St. Louis, Missouri. Bernard entered the United States Army on October 7, 1942. After receiving training as an artillery specialist, Bernard went overseas as a member of Patton’s Third Army. In May 1945, he was dispatched to serve in an aid organization, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA).

Charlotte shares her experience as a U.S. Army nurse who participated in the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp in Germany in May 1945. Charlotte Chaney was born Charlotte Ellner on October 15, 1921, in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Charlotte was trained as a nurse and then volunteered for the Army Air Corps in 1944. That same year she married United States Navyman Bernard Chaney. In May 1945, Charlotte was sent to Europe as a part of the Red Cross, not knowing she was about to take part in the liberation of Dachau concentration camp.

Rose describes her realization that the war had ended and her experience of being liberated from Ober Altstadt labor camp in Czechoslovakia in May 1945. Rose Kaplovitz was born Rozia Zaks on September 6, 1930, in Sosnowiec, Poland. Rose remembers her childhood in the Jewish community on the Polish-German border as relatively happy and secure. However, on the second day of the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, Rose witnessed her brother’s execution by German officers.

As the Allies retook control of lands that had been occupied by the Germans, they came across many Nazi camps. In some instances, the Nazis had tried to destroy all evidence of the camps, in order to conceal from the world what had happened there. In other cases, only the buildings remained as the Nazis had sent the prisoners elsewhere, often on death marches.

USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education has added a collection of testimonies of survivors and rescuers from the 1994 Rwandan Tutsi genocide to its Visual History Archive. This marks the first integration of testimonies outside of Holocaust survivors and witnesses into the Visual History Archive.

Stephen Feinberg remembers always finding the study of history to be interesting and exciting. During his studies as an undergraduate and graduate student, he was introduced to the history of the Holocaust. “I became increasingly aware that this was a watershed event in history,” he recalls. “Therefore, I felt that it should be taught in schools.”

Called Gypsy, Tsigan, Gitane, Cygane, Zigeuner, the Roma people have wandered the world for a thousand years—their mysterious origins a source of fascination as well as suspicion. They’ve been romanticized but also brutally persecuted by the more settled and orderly cultures they’ve traveled through and enriched.

USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education invites proposals for its 2013 Teaching Fellows program. Teaching faculty from all 43 VHA access sites are encouraged to apply. The fellowship provides summer support for instructors interested in creating a new course or modifying an existing course to incorporate testimony from the Visual History Archive. There are no restrictions with respect to the disciplinary approach or methodology of the proposed courses. 

USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education was among the participating organizations at an open house for the USC-Max Kade Institute, home of the university’s German Studies and European Studies programs. The open house took place on April 12, 2013. Guests watched testimony at a computer station connected via Wi-Fi to the Foundation’s Visual History Archive, which is available at USC and more than 40 other institutions around the world.

USC Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual History and Education participated in USC's Genocide Awareness week with a series of events, including an evening of dramatic arts on April 9, 2013.