In honor of Memorial Day, we gratefully honor Arthur Langhorst, an American surgical technician and decorated World War II veteran, and the 361 other liberators from 19 countries who have given testimony to the Visual History Archive. Arthur recounts in this clip a tragic encounter with a young soldier who was brought to his operating table after sustaining injuries in the Battle of the Bulge.

USC Shoah Foundation is committed to expanding its archive to include testimony from survivors and witnesses of other genocides and crimes against humanity, and to make such testimony available for educational use around the world, alongside more than 57,466 testimonies of Holocaust survivors and other witnesses.To that end, USC Shoah Foundation works with partners around the world, sharing the expertise the Institute acquired through the collection, indexing, preservation, and dissemination of the testimonies that are currently in the Visual History Archive.

As the week of Memorial Day comes to a close we honor the soldiers who helped liberate Holocaust survivors from concentration camps. Lina Jackson, who was among the Sinti and Roma populations targeted for discrimination as part of the Nuremberg Laws, recounts her liberation from Dachau concentration camp by the American Armed Forces. She vividly remembers the kindness of one particular soldier.

View “The USC Shoah Foundation Story,” a video about the Institute's history and its current mission at the University of Southern California.