Watch Alice Herz Sommer’s full testimony from the Visual History Archive as part of Comcast’s Days of Remembrance: PastFORWARD broadcast April 15-June 1, 2015.Perhaps no musical Holocaust survivor is more well-known and beloved than Alice Herz Sommer.
/ Friday, May 1, 2015
Three Holocaust survivors describe incredible stories of how music quite literally saved their lives in the Days of Remembrance film Music Saved My Life.
comcast, holocaust, music, musical performance, Kurt Messerschmidt / Friday, May 1, 2015
(Pickhan, left, and Bothe)USC Shoah Foundation has chosen its 2015 Teaching Fellows: Gertrud Pickhan and Alina Bothe, who will develop a seminar course as well as a public exhibition on the deportation of Polish Jews from Berlin at Freie Universität.Teaching Fellows receive a $2,000 stipend and $500 for course materials, and work with USC Shoah Foundation staff to develop their course. Their syllabi are published on the USC Shoah Foundation website, and fellows are expected to give a public presentation of their course at the end of the fellowship period.
/ Monday, May 4, 2015
Merinda Davis was so inspired by Roman Kent's message of peace that she developed a lesson that has inspired her students to live by his words, and feels that her teaching has been changed forever.
past is present, Auschwitz70 / Monday, May 4, 2015
Edith Umugiraneza, staff member of USC Shoah Foundation was born in Rwanda and survived the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, but lost most of her family including mother, oldest brother, cousins, nieces, grandparents and uncles. After the Genocide Edith moved to Canada where she finished high school, college and university. In 2004, she moved to Los Angeles where she now lives with her husband and two beautiful daughters. Edith gave her testimony to USC Shoah Foundation and continues to speak about her experience around the Greater Los Angeles area.
/ Monday, May 4, 2015
I participated in an event in April called Survivor Voices. We were six panelists from Bosnia, Rwanda, Cambodia, two Holocaust survivors and an Armenian-American priest.
genocide awareness month, Rwanda Genocide, GAM, op-eds, cagr / Monday, May 4, 2015
Wendy Lower has used the Visual History Archive to uncover how women contributed to the Nazi Party and helped perpetrate the crimes of the Holocaust.
yom hashoah, wendy lower, lecture / Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Agahozo Shalom Youth Village held its annual Stand Up & Be Counted event May 4 in New York City, and awarded Stephen D. Smith and James M. Smith its Anne Heyman Spirit Award for their service and generosity.
Stephen Smith, aegis / Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Jona Goldrich’s family evaded roundups deportation by hiding in an attic. Jona describes how he and his young brother escaped Nazi occupied Poland after his father decided it was no longer safe for his sons to remain in the country.
clip, male, jewish survivor, jona goldrich, poland, evasion, emigration / Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Elizabeth Vitanza teaches her students a multitude of skills, including French, video editing and project management, when she does her IWitness unit each year.
/ Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Gertrude Englander describes the liberation of Mauthausen concentration camp in May 1945.
clip, Mauthausen, liberation, Getrude Englander, female, jewish survivor / Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Just two weeks ago, USC Shoah Foundation launched its Armenian Genocide Collection in the Visual History Archive; now, 12 of those initial 60 testimonies are already available for students and educators to view in IWitness.
armenian film foundation / Thursday, May 7, 2015
Get a behind-the-scenes look at how two USC students composed a piano piece inspired by Holocaust survivor testimony in the new documentary Melodies of Auschwitz.
comcast, biniaz, past is present, a70, poland / Friday, May 8, 2015
Wolf Deane plays the song composed and sang by Jews in the Lodz ghetto in Poland. This testimony clip and melody is featured in the short film Melodies of Auschwitz.   
clip, male jewish survivor, Lodz ghetto, Melodies of Auschiwtz, wolfe dean, music, music recital / Thursday, May 7, 2015
(Alex Biniaz-Harris, left, and Ambrose Soehn)The composers behind the three-movement piano piece featured in the documentary Melodies of Auschwitz, now playing on Comcast Xfinity’s Days of Remembrance: PastFORWARD broadcast, reunited for a screening and concert at USC’s Brain and Creativity Institute this week and spoke candidly about their journey from page to performance.
/ Friday, May 8, 2015
Edith Umugiraneza was born and raised in Rwanda and survived the 1994 Rwandan Tutsi Genocide but lost most of her family including her mother. Edith wrote this poem not only as an ode to her mother but as a promise to continue her mother's work of helping others.
Mother's Day, memory, Rwandan Genocide, op-eds / Thursday, May 7, 2015
As part of USC Shoah Foundation’s Preserving the Legacy initiative, 281 testimonies from Holocaust Museum Houston are currently being indexed for integration into the Visual History Archive.
houston, holocaust, testimony, visual history archive / Monday, May 11, 2015
The second annual Greenberg Research Fellowship has been awarded to Julia Werner, a PhD candidate in history at Humboldt University, Berlin, who will combine testimony with her study of photography of occupied Poland during World War II.
/ Monday, May 11, 2015
USC Shoah Foundation is currently in the second year of Days of Remembrance: PastFORWARD, a five-year partnership with Comcast to provide USC Shoah Foundation content to Comcast Xfinity customers On Demand, through the Xfinity TV Go app and online, in conjunction with the U.S. National Days of Remembrance, a commemoration of the Holocaust held every spring.
past is present, auschwitz, James Moll, poland / Friday, May 15, 2015
Chaim Borenstein remembers the brutality of the SS guards while imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto in Nazi occupied Poland.
clip, male, jewish survivor, Chaim Borenstein, warsaw ghetto, ghetto experience / Monday, May 11, 2015
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has once again awarded IWitness its Seal of Alignment for another two years, recognizing IWitness’s focus on building students’ technology skills according to ISTE Standards.
iwitness, iste / Tuesday, May 12, 2015
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago will soon incorporate IWitness into some of their programs following workshops with students and program leaders last week.
chicago, brandon barr, Claudia Wiedeman / Thursday, May 14, 2015
Many survivors of Auschwitz talk about hearing music when they first arrived at the camp or while they were marching to work each morning. One of the musicians they heard may very well have been Anita Lasker Wallfisch.
/ Friday, May 15, 2015
Sally Ingram was first introduced to USC Shoah Foundation years ago, when her mother-in-law, Marione Ingram, gave her testimony to the Visual History Archive about her life in hiding during the war. Now, Ingram is using testimony and the IWitness Video Challenge to inspire her middle school students to deeply engage with survivors’ stories.
/ Monday, May 18, 2015
Auschwitz: The Past is Present was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for not just the teachers and students who attended, but the USC Shoah Foundation staff who led the program as well.
past is present, Lesly Culp, Paula Lebovics, a70, poland / Monday, May 18, 2015
Ford will be recognized for his leadership and corporate citizenry around education and community.
gala, ambassadors for humanity, detroit / Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Herman Cohn recalls watching the parade in Nazi Germany for Hitler’s birthday in 1933 and how terrified he felt as a young boy.  
clip, herman cohn, nazi germany / Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Toni Nickel is preparing for a career of teaching the Holocaust by serving as the first-ever USC Shoah Foundation intern at Texas A&M University. The A.I. and Manet Schepps Foundation funded a three-year, $75,000 initiative to support a teaching fellow and intern at Texas A&M. The fellowship will instruct professors on ways to integrate the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive of Holocaust and other genocide survivors’ testimonies into their teaching.
/ Wednesday, May 13, 2015
USC Shoah Foundation’s Karen Jungblut and Cecilia Chan spoke on a panel about the power of testimony at University of Pennsylvania’s Alumni Weekend last Friday.
/ Thursday, May 21, 2015
Detroit, Michigan — May 13, 2015 — Steven Spielberg, founder of USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education, will present William Clay Ford, Jr., executive chairman of Ford Motor Company, with the Institute’s Ambassador for Humanity Award at the organization’s annual gala, taking place this year in Detroit on Sept. 10. Ford will be recognized for his leadership and corporate citizenry around education and community. Mickey Shapiro, real estate developer and longstanding member of the Institute’s Board of Councilors, is the event’s co-chairman.
/ Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Pages