United States army veteran Don Shimazu remembers the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor December 7 1941. He was a part of the ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corps) at the University of Hawaii and remembers being put on duty right away.  A Hawaiian native, he also reflects on the tension the attack created in his family, since his parents were Japanese citizens.

Sid Shachnow has two Silver Stars, three Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts -- and that's just for his service in Vietnam, where he led his troops with courage and distinction. “There was no room for conscience,” he confides when discussing his 39 years of military service. “Once I was face to face with a Viet Cong. I had him in my sights as he ran toward me. He dropped his weapon and veered left. I did not pull the trigger. I still do not know if I did the right thing. My conscience got in the way.”

Barry Bruk speaks of the deteriorating living conditions in the Lódz ghetto, Poland, in late 1941. He remembers the deportation of thousands of Jews from the Lódz ghetto to the Kulmhof Death Camp in Chelmno, Poland, in January 1941 and relates that his sister, brother-in-law and young nephew were among those deported and killed in the camp.

Gussie Zaks recalls her arrival to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. She remembers the horrible camp conditions and how many women in her camp did not survive.

Secondary school students across France are hard at work on their entries for the 2013-2014 National Contest on Resistance and Deportation – and many of them are drawing inspiration from USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive