As parents and families of USC students descended on campus on Thursday for the first day of Trojan Family Weekend, many were already making sure to stop by Doheny Memorial Library to learn about USC Shoah Foundation and explore the Visual History Archive.

Through the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda activity, students will learn about the history of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda specifically, the history of genocide generally, and the stages of genocide.

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.

In partnership with Charles University in Prague, ITS has developed software that enables Czech users to search the Visual History Archive in their own language.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

When Barbara Winton visited USC Shoah Foundation last week, it wasn’t just the testimonies that talk about how her father saved hundreds of lives during the Holocaust that impressed her – it was how these testimonies are being used to educate the next generation.

For the next 70 days USC Shoah Foundation will highlight testimony clips from people who witnessed firsthand the horrors of Auschwitz.

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.

Educators from around the world had the opportunity to learn more about IWitness at the Annual Convention of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Nov. 20-23 in Washington, D.C.

USC Shoah Foundation’s 2014 "Through Testimony" international conference “Memory, Media and Technology: Exploring the Trajectories of Schindler’s List” is in full swing in Los Angeles. Those unable to attend can still participate by viewing panels, roundtables and the keynote online.

The many artworks, films and books that emerged from the Holocaust are the topic of a course to be taught next semester at USC.

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.