The recent New York Times article, The Shroud over Rwanda's Nightmare (January 9, 2014), had me perplexed at first. Michael Dobbs' enquiry centers on the character of Jean-Pierre, the informant who tipped off United Nations head of mission General Romeo Dallaire about preparations for widespread killing of civilians in Rwanda 1994 as evidenced by the training of the Interhamwe militia, the presence of arms caches and the purchase of large numbers of machetes.

Four researchers who are part of the Holocaust Geographies Collaborative explored the Visual History Archive for the first time and were inspired by what they found.

Students and educators have multiple opportunities to learn about USC Shoah Foundation and explore the Visual History Archive at Eötvos Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest over the next few weeks.

USC Shoah Foundation added a new country and language to the Visual History Archive and surpassed 20,000 IWitness users in the last quarter of 2013.

Scholars interested in developing college courses or conducting research using USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive are invited to apply for 2014-15 fellowships at USC Shoah Foundation.

Though it’s most known as the city that was home to the Auschwitz concentration camp, the Polish city of Oświęcim has a history of its own as a small industrial center with a thriving Jewish population.

USC Shoah Foundation has published two Polish-language lessons about the Holocaust, complete with clips from the Visual History Archive, on the USC Shoah Foundation website. They are available for free to educators around the world.

A five-part exhibit of testimony from USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive will be on display at world UNESCO headquarters in Paris to commemorate International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust on Jan. 27.

USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education invites proposals for its 2014 Teaching Fellows program that will provide summer support for faculty at the Institute’s Visual History Archive access sites to integrate the Institute’s testimonies into new or existing courses. The faculty stipend program provides financial support and staff assistance to faculty members who wish to use the Institute’s life-history testimonies in their courses.  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 invites proposals for its 2014 Student Research Fellow program. The fellowship provides support during summer 2014 or one designated semester of the 2014-2015 academic year for USC undergraduate and graduate students interested in doing research at the Visual History Archive. 

Tento střihový film, který si můžete stáhnout do svého počítače, obsahuje úryvky ze svědectví pamětníků Holocaustu z archivu vizuální historie USC Shoah Foundation. Všichni se narodili v polském městě Osvětim (Oświęcim), dnes nechvalně proslulém díky systému koncentračních táborů pojmenovaném Auschwitz, který ve městě a jeho okolí vybudovala německá okupační správa.

This downloadable video contains clips from testimonies of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust from the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive who were born and grew up in the Polish city of Oświęcim, now infamous as the location of Auschwitz camp system created there by the occupying Nazi German administration.

Historie města sahá nejméně do 12. století. Po prvním dělení Polska roku 1772 bylo město anektováno k habsburskému Rakousku, k polské správě se vrátilo až po skončení první světové války. Mezitím se Osvětim stala průmyslovým centrem a důležitou železniční křižovatkou. V roce 1921 mělo město 4 950 židovských obyvatel. V předvečer druhé světové války žilo v Osvětimi 8000 židů, přes polovinu populace města. V říjnu 1939 bylo město připojeno k Velkoněmecké říši.

Steven Spielberg, founder of the USC Shoah Foundation, said it is vital for genocides to be remembered through eyewitness testimony in his keynote address this morning at the United Nations’ International Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony.

Jeffrey Shandler, professor at Rutgers University and the 2012-13 USC Shoah Foundation Institute Scholar, published a multimedia article that examines the impact of "Schindler’s List" on Holocaust survivors in the December 2013 issue of American Literature.

USC Shoah Foundation’s research department will host seven new Holocaust indexers and three Aegis Trust Rwanda staff members this month for a training session on indexing Holocaust and Rwandan testimonies.

November 15, 2012: Dr. Sean Field discussed oral histories in the context of both the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Centre for Popular Memory in South Africa and approaches to studying memories of violence.

Rena Finder survived the Holocaust by working in Oscar Schindler’s factory. Finder is a featured speaker for the Holocaust Memorial Ceremony at the United Nations on January 27, the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

University of Southern California students will study post-genocide reconstruction this summer on the second annual Problems Without Passports trip to Rwanda. The course is led by USC Shoah Foundation's Dan Leshem and Amy Carnes.

The email wasn’t so different from many others I’ve received since I started working at the USC Shoah Foundation last summer. A woman named Olga in Germany was moved by watching survivor Paula Lebovics talk about her stolen childhood during the Holocaust. Olga had a young daughter of her own and felt an immediate bond with Paula, who was taken to Auschwitz when she was the same age. And so she wanted to contact her.

The word journey comes to the English language from the Old French jornee, meaning a day, or, by extension, a day’s labor or travel.  This word, which we normally associate with something pleasant, takes on a different meaning when placed in conversation with the word Holocaust.  This was the challenge placed in front of me by colleagues at UNESCO, when they requested that the USC Shoah Foundation prepare an exhibition for International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27 – the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.

Located northwest of Drohobycz in the Lwów voivoship in Poland (after the war Drogobych, Ukraine), the Bronica Forest was the site of massacres of the local Jewish population by the Nazis in 1942 -1943. The Jews were taken from the Drohobycz ghetto to the Bronica forest to be killed until the closing of the ghetto in June 1943. Nearly 11,000 Jews were killed on that site, including Al’fred Shraer’s mother and maternal grandfather. He speaks in Ukrainian about the history of the monument standing on the site and explains how the executions took place.

USC Shoah Foundation is excited to announce the launch of the tablet-compatible version of its award-winning educational website IWitness.

You don’t have to be in Paris to view UNESCO’s “Journeys Through the Holocaust” exhibit, curated by USC Shoah Foundation associate director of education – evaluation and scholarship Dr. Amy M Carnes. The entire exhibit is posted – in English and French – right here on the USC Shoah Foundation website.

Summary: Free and open to the public, monthly Institute visits give guests a chance to explore the life stories of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides and to discover how their memories are being used to overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry. Description:

Summary: Free and open to the public, monthly Institute visits give guests a chance to explore the life stories of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides and to discover how their memories are being used to overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry. Description:

USC Shoah Foundation founder Steven Spielberg will deliver the keynote address at the UN’s Holocaust Memorial Ceremony on the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust on Jan. 27.

A USC Shoah Foundation exhibit and New York Times article remember that millions of people were murdered not in concentration camps, but in public sites all over Eastern Europe.

Gitow will consult on a variety of topics and initiate collaborations between the Shoah Foundation and the UN.