All over the world, Jewish survivors of the Holocaust era are giving testimony – but not for USC Shoah Foundation’s original collection of over 51,000 Holocaust survivor testimonies. Instead, they are the first participants of the new Testimonies of North Africa and the Middle East project.

The “Oral History and Mediation” panel will present three unique research projects that each study a different aspect of giving and recording testimony.

Art engages broader audiences and raises awareness of genocide in Rwanda, says Kwibuka20 international creative director Stacie Chaiken in the spring 2014 issue of PastForward.

This September a new school year will begin in Ukraine and the first lesson students be taught is “Ukraine is united" and the lesson will be devoted to state integrity of Ukraine. A tough issue for the country engrossed into an ongoing military conflict and terrorist attacks.

Former USC Shoah Foundation Executive Director Douglas Greenberg's Comparative Genocide course at Rutgers University has had a profound effect on his students.

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.

Today marks the beginning of Kwibuka20, Rwanda’s three-month commemoration of the 1994 Rwandan Tutsi Genocide.

A special delegation of staff and supporters of the USC Shoah Foundation arrived in Rwanda yesterday to begin a weeklong mission to learn about the Institute’s work in Rwanda, reinforce their commitment, and share the experience with others.

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.

Speaking at USC on Feb. 20, Zainab Hawa Bangura, the United Nations Undersecretary-General and Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, said that sexual assault is a deliberate tactic used to demoralize not only women – its most frequent targets – but also destroy families and tear apart communities.

One year after learning how to incorporate testimony into their lesson plans, the 2013 Teaching with Testimony in the 21st Century graduates in Hungary returned for a follow-up session to share the lessons they have now piloted in their classrooms.

Educators can now access three of USC Shoah Foundation’s Ukrainian-language lesson guides and modules for free on the USC Shoah Foundation website. Each lesson includes everything teachers need including testimony and film clips.

Following a screening of Finding Hillywood, a documentary about the birth of the Rwandan film industry, Rwandan film pioneer Eric Kabera spoke about making movies 20 years after the genocide in a Q&A hosted by the USC Shoah Foundation.

Contest challenges students to honor the legacy of Schindler’s List by engaging in community service inspired by survivors’ testimonies and showcasing their action in an IWitness video essay.

Pinchas Gutter stepped onto the bimah at the Kiever Synagogue in Toronto, Canada, where for the 27th consecutive time he was about to lead the Yom Kippur services.  He stood tall in his white robe breathing deeply surrounded by eight white-clad Torah scrolls, each held by a leaders of the congregation.  The scrolls appear to jostle for position, their silver shields and finials glistening as PInchas intones the ancient supplication, 'Kol Nidrei'.  But on the bimah there are more than the eight men holding Torah scrolls, because gathered around him are also the ghosts of the Gerrer Hasidim o

Leading American and international businessmen and philanthropists are joining forces to support the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau on 27 January 2015.

Program by Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, USC Shoah Foundation and World Jewish Congress in partnership with Discovery Education

The student members of the Shoah Foundation Institute Student Association (SFISA), USC STAND, and other groups will host a full line-up of events this April to commemorate Genocide Awareness Month at the University of Southern California.

In April 1994, the genocide of the Rwandan Tutsis officially began, even though the persecution and killing campaign had gone on for decades. In 100 days, close to 1 million women, children and men were slaughtered and tortured to death with machetes, metal sticks and knives. The conflict gained momentum when Belgium became the colonial power in Rwanda after Germany’s defeat in World War I, and further highlighted and reinforced the distinctions between Hutus and Tutsis.

Customized Education Activities, Once-In-A-Lifetime Teacher Professional Development Program in Poland and Exclusive Virtual Field Trip will be Part of Auschwitz: The Past is Present Initiative

On the day the Visual History Archive access site in Prague - the Malach Center for Visual History - was inaugurated I decided that my school, Archbishop High School in Prague, could not ignore it. However, I was not able to think of a way how to organically incorporate it in teaching English, which is my job. My chance came only recently.

As a writer fascinated by literary and political theory on history and memory, I watched students from Camino Nuevo High School interview Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter while I sat in awe witnessing the past and future intersect before my eyes.

Development took a major step forward this month for New Dimensions in Testimony, the three-dimensional, fully interactive display of Holocaust survivors created by USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies and Conscience Display. Audiences had the chance to interact with the pilot for the first time.

Rwanda Peace Education Program (RPEP) hosted the second Forum of Educational Stakeholders on Peace Education to discuss progress made in line with the integration of Peace Education in the Rwandan school curriculum.

To honor this remarkable man and visionary scholar, the Institute gratefully re-posts his profile below. During the brief week that Harry spent with us here in Los Angeles this past July as our inaugural Rutman Teaching Fellow, he managed to touch and inspire all of our staff and friends of the Institute who worked with him and who heard his public lecture.

Contest challenges students to honor the legacy of Schindler’s List by engaging in community service inspired by survivors’ testimonies and showcasing their action in an IWitness video essay.

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.

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.

More than 100 Auschwitz survivors from at least 17 countries will travel to Poland to participate in the observance of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz on 27 January 2015, on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The official event will be organized by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the International Auschwitz Council. The World Jewish Congress and the USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education will be among the organizations supporting this commemorative event.

The statistics are rolling in: Thousands of rockets fired, thousands of homes destroyed, 65,000 reservists deployed, hundreds of Palestinian and tens of Israeli dead, miles of print, hours of commentary, two ceasefires. But for all our statistics, are we not missing one fundamental point? No one is suffering more at the hands of Hamas than the ordinary people of Gaza.