In Soviet-occupied Dubienka, Poland, located by the Bug River and on the border with Ukraine, Sam Szor remembers the military fortification by German armed forces in anticipation of the upcoming invasion of the Soviet Union. He describes the invasion, which took place in the dawn of the morning hours of June 22, 1941. It was his birthday. He recalls the retreat of the Soviet armed forces and the resulting fear felt by the Jewish population with the German occupation of Dubienka.

Over 17,000 Jews found refuge in Shanghai, China during World War II. In this section, interviewees talk about the process of adopting and adjusting to the cultural traits and social patterns in the new country and detail their daily life in China. They describe the living conditions and explain how they were able to maintain their Jewish identity while in Shanghai and in the Hongkew Ghetto, established by the occupying Japanese authorities in 1943.  Jewish as well as secular education, and involvement in the youth Zionist organizations are discussed.  

On July 7, 1937, the Japanese attack Wanping on the outskirts of Beijing, and the second Sino-Japanese War begins. The Japanese quickly take Beijing and capture Tianjin (Tientsin). Savage fighting breaks out in Shanghai on August 13, which falls to Japan by late December. Initially, Japan continues a policy of open immigration to Shanghai. The November Pogrom (November 9, 1938) in Germany dramatically increases the number of German Jews entering Shanghai. Over 1,500 refugees arrive by the end of December 1938, and the number reaches 4,000 three months later.

During World War II, China was divided into three occupation zones among the Communist (CCP) forces led by Mao Tse-tung based in the north, the Nationalist (Kuomintang, KMT) forces led by Chiang Kai-shek based in the west, and the Japanese armed forces along the eastern seaboard. When the U.S. enters World War II on December 8, 1941, the United States becomes an ally of China.

On February 18, 1943, as a result of German pressure, Japanese authorities established a ghetto in the Hongkew neighborhood of Shanghai for stateless Jewish refugees who had arrived in Shanghai from Germany and German-occupied areas of Europe from 1937-1942. Kanoh Ghoya was a Japanese official responsible for giving monthly passes to Jewish refugees living in the Hongkew ghetto in Shanghai, China during World War II. Ghoya was also known as the "King of the Jews" and was infamous for his inhumane treatment of ghetto inhabitants.

When the Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945, there are 25,000 to 30,000 Jews in China, 17,000 of them in Shanghai. The Shanghai ghetto is only opened with the arrival of an American goodwill mission on September 3, 1945. Communists and Nationalists race to establish positions in Japanese-occupied areas of China. During 1945-1947, Manchuria is under Soviet occupation, and Jewish community leaders of Harbin are arrested and sent to the Soviet interior. Chinese Nationalists and Communists sign a truce on January 10, 1946.

Testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the 1994 Rwandan Tutsi Genocide added to USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive have resulted in 500 new search terms for the archive’s indexing system. The index is a controlled vocabulary of more than 50,000 terms that make up the Shoah Foundation’s Thesaurus and that allow detailed searching of the testimonies in the archive.