The Rwandan Tutsi Genocide committee at the first Trojan Model UN utilized testimony from the Visual History Archive in order to give the delegates real-life scenarios they couldn’t get anywhere else.

Liliane Bentitou reflects on hiding in Lyon, France and how she was able to conceal her identity with false papers.  

Within the Visual History Archive there are over 8,000 testimonies that reference France, over 1,600 that were conducted in the country and over 1,800 testimonies that were given in French.

David Faber recalls the anti-Semitism he experienced as a child in pre-WWII Poland. He describes numerous instances where he was abused physically and emotionally by non-Jewish children on his way to and from school.

Lili Meier describes how she found a photo album, which has become known as the Auschwitz Album, in a deserted SS barracks on the day she was liberated from the Dora concentration camp. The Auschwitz Album is the only known collection of photographs taken by the Nazi SS at Auschwitz-Birkenau. This testimony clip is featured in the IWitness activity Arrival at Auschwitz – Images and Individual Experiences.

Though her students are only 10 or 11 years old, Suzi Gantz jumped at the chance to introduce them to IWitness for USC Shoah Foundation’s first elementary classroom pilot of a new IWitness activity.Gantz’s fifth grade class at O. A. Thorp Scholastic Academy in Chicago is currently pilot-testing an unpublished IWitness Mini Quest activity: “Use Your Voice Against Prejudice.” USC Shoah Foundation staff reached out to elementary teachers in the Chicago area for any who would be interested in piloting an IWitness activity, and Gantz was selected after a brief screening process.

IWitness is typically used in middle- and high school classrooms and college courses, but that may change following this week’s pilot testing of a new activity intended for students as young as fifth grade.

For some people, hope is nothing but an airy dream. But for my parents, Elisabeth and George, it is a hard-won reality that they have lived every day of their lives. Their commitment is anything but naïve. They are both survivors of the Holocaust and have experienced anti-Semitism in all its forms. They’ve suffered more than most of us, God willing, will ever experience. And yet, their hope has been a source of redemption and new life.

Monday, November 17, 7:30-9:00 pmGrand Ballroom at the USC Radisson (3540 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90007)USC Shoah Foundation and its Center for Advanced Genocide Research present an evening panel discussion as a part of the Through Testimony 2014 International Conference, “Memory, Media, and Technology: Exploring the Trajectories of Schindler’s List.”Moderated by USC Shoah Foundation Executive Director Stephen D. Smith.

USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education is pleased to announce that Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS), a university in Lyon, France, is the 51st institution, and the first in France, to gain full access to the Institute’s Visual History Archive, a repository of nearly 52,000 video testimonies from survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides.

Offered by USC Shoah Foundation and Discovery Education in support of the official 70th anniversary commemoration of the liberation of the former German Nazi concentration and death camp.

The educators from 11 different countries representing four continents will attend a four-day workshop during the commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in January 2015.

At the Canadian International School of Beijing (CISB), Gary Goodwin’s students represent an especially vast range of nationalities and backgrounds. So it’s only fitting that he uses IWitness to teach not just the Holocaust, but also the Nanjing Massacre and Rwandan Tutsi Genocide.Goodwin teaches 10th, 11th, and 12th grade humanities within CISB’s International Baccalaureate curriculum. He was inspired by Schindler’s List to get a master’s in history and from researching the movie discovered USC Shoah Foundation and IWitness.

In the "Arrival at Auschwitz" activity, students will consider the personal experiences of those who arrived on the ramp at Auschwitz-Birkenau by examining historical photographs and watching testimony.

Miriam Ziegler recalls how she reunited with other Holocaust survivors after she immigrated to Toronto. She also reflects on the famous photo of herself and other the children of Auschwitz photographed by Russian liberators.  

For many educators in the greater Los Angeles area, Matthew Friedman is their first introduction to teaching the Holocaust.

Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County held a dedication ceremony for its new Holocaust & Heritage Resource Center last week, where its students will use IWitness to learn about the Holocaust.

The 4th annual Student Voices Short Film Contest will open for submissions on Jan. 12, 2015, featuring key changes intended to increase awareness for the contest and help participants complete their projects more efficiently.

Celina Biniaz describes how she and her parents were selected to be on Schindler’ List. She also recalls when the women transport from Plaszow was sent to Auschwitz instead of to the Schindler factory in Brünnlitz.

Local liaisons and educators hosted an ITeach seminar about teaching with testimony at Berzsenyi High School on Saturday, Nov. 8 - the 14th ITeach seminar in Hungary this year.

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Renée Firestone remembers arriving at Auschwitz II-Birkenau with her sister, whom she tried desperately to hang onto so they would not be separated. 

Simone Gigliotti teaches in the history program at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, and is a member of the Holocaust Geographies Collective, a group of researchers who study the Holocaust in terms of geography and movement of survivors and victims. She is the first official visiting scholar to the Center, which includes a week-long residency for Gigliotti to conduct research in the Visual History Archive and give a public lecture at USC.