Steve Kay, dean of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, believe that the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive holds many keys to unlocking the enigmatic conditions that have led to genocides throughout history.

With nearly 52,000 interviews from survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides, the archive of audio-visual testimony assembled and maintained by USC Shoah Foundation is so abundant it would take at least 12 years to watch it from beginning to end. And that’s assuming the footage would be rolling 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When I started my new job here at the Institute, I was struck by this statistic, which adequately conveys the scope of this incredible resource.

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, listen to the testimonies of 70 Holocaust survivors, drawn from the Visual History Archive at USC Shoah Foundation, as they recall their personal experiences in the Nazi extermination camp.

"My Story Matters" focuses on the importance of individuals sharing stories of survival for their own benefit, for the benefit of others, and for the collective benefit to the world.

The academic conference hosted by USC Shoah Foundation last week was an excellent opportunity for me to hear the personal stories of survivors alongside academic analysis of modern-day events and future challenges. I attended the keynote panel discussion and the final discussion on the future of testimony and genocide study.

George and Giselle Weiss are both child survivors and natives of Belgium. George describes when he first met Giselle after he returned to Belgium from his military service in the Israel. Giselle explains how her grandmother disapproved of their romance because George was not orthodox. In 1955 George and Giselle married in Belgium and moved to the United States. February 13 2014 was George and Giselle’s 59th wedding anniversary.

George and Giselle Weiss are both child survivors and natives of Belgium. George describes when he first met Giselle after he returned to Belgium from his military service in the Israel. Giselle explains how her grandmother disapproved of their romance because George was not orthodox.  Two years later George and Giselle married in Belgium and then moved to the United States.

Chance and Choice: A Survivor’s Story highlights the poem "Could Have" by Wislawa Szymborska and three specific survival events from Jewish survivor Lusia Haberfeld's testimony to convey the role of both individual choice as well as luck in surviving the Holocaust.

Senior Institute Fellow Doug Greenberg’s lecture brought to life the story of the people of Wolyn, who were slaughtered years before the most recognizable events of the Holocaust even began, yet have largely disappeared from public and scholarly memory.

USC Shoah Foundation has partnered with the Center for Research on Intercultural Relations at Sacred Heart Catholic University in Italy to produce the multimedia website Giving Memory a Future: The Sinti and Roma in Italy and Around the World.

In the Spring 2014 issue of PastForward, Holocaust survivor Roman Kent shares his story of survival, education and one very special dog.

In the Spring 2014 issue of PastForward, USC Professor of neuroscience Antonio Damasio discusses how personal stories can evoke deep empathy for human tragedy.

Lemkin is the subject of a new documentary called "Watchers of the Sky," now playing in select theaters. It is inspired by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power’s Pulitzer-Prize winning book A Problem from Hell.

Survivor of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and youth activist Yannick Tona will speak on his experiences during the genocide and relate them to concerns of the modern day, including the need for continued genocide education and for social responsibility in the media.   ASC 207 (Annenberg Geoffrey Cowan Forum), 6:30 – 7:30pm, with a reception to follow.

USC Shoah Foundation’s academic year programming kicks off next Monday with a screening of the documentary As Seen Through These Eyes, which tells the stories of Holocaust survivors who made art during and after World War II.

Celina Biniaz, Edith Umugiraneza and Sara Pol-Lim shared their stories of survival and resilience at the last Genocide Awareness Month event at USC on Tuesday, “Women of the Holocaust, Cambodia and Rwanda: Three Survivors in Conversation.”

A story on the CBS This Morning show about the latest in digital moviemaking technology made sure to note that the technology isn’t just for making imaginary creatures and movie stunt doubles – it’s also being used to create fully interactive displays of Holocaust survivors.

I was born and brought up in a university town in the Czech Republic called Olomouc. It had a small Jewish community.   My father is a writer and academic.  Five years ago he interviewed Milos Dobry who was a prominent member of the Olomouc Jewish community and a long-term Holocaust survivor.  His story was fascinating - about how he and his brother had survived Terezín and Auschwitz and how Milos had gone on to have a successful career as an inventor and sports personality.  I went to meet Milos Dobry personally to further interview him about his history.

For years now I have noticed that my students are especially interested in the information from non- traditional educational channels; visual and auditory information are often more welcome than academic texts from their books. The reason, we have experienced a shift in the methods that young people process information these days. 

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.

Academic panel: USC Doheny Memorial Library 240, 4—5 p.m.Grand Opening and Reception: USC Doheny Memorial Library main lobby, 5 —6 p.m.

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.

Rescue is a crucial topic in understanding genocide survival and appreciating the difficult choices that people make in extreme circumstances. Although many stories of survival during the Holocaust are due to unexplained and unexplainable circumstances, there are also numerous accounts of individual and group acts of aid and rescue that contributed to the survival of thousands of Jewish people.

More than 30 hours of content will be available for free through Xfinity On Demand, Xfinity TV Go app and online in conjunction with the U.S. National Days of Remembrance.

The designers at Olson, an advertising and digital agency in Minneapolis, typically spend their days creating ad campaigns for clients including McDonalds, Target and General Mills. But for the last six months, a team from Olson has undertaken a project of an entirely different sort.

Through a new partnership with Mona Golabek’s Hold On To Your Music Foundation, IWitness launched this activity to introduce students to the history and experience of the Kindertransport.

I first learned about Helena Horowitz’s life history when I found her testimony as I searched through the archive in IWitness the Institute’s educational website featuring the testimonies of survivors and other witnesses to the Holocaust and other genocides.

When I was a child, my grandfather often told me about the Second World War. While he sat next to me, coloring or teaching me letters of the alphabet, he would sneak in a story about his days in the Soviet army. He would tell me about his post as a commander of a marine unit and how his forces liberated an Austrian town under Nazi occupation.

Screening of Keepers of Memory Survivors’ Accounts of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda Followed by a Q&A session with Eric Kabera, Director Friday, March 7, Leavey Auditorium

Esther Toporek Finder discusses how second and third generation survivors embrace the message of education and remembrance in this article from PastForward Spring 2014.