Jewish survivor Paula Lebovics, Jewish survivor Howard Chandler, Jewish survivor Philip Helbling, Political prisoner Kaz Wolff-Zdzienicki, and Sinti and Roma survivor Julia Lentini recall their experiences of the evacuation and liberation of the Auschwitz camp complex in January 1945. Otari Amaglobeli of the Soviet Armed forces describes his involvement in the liberation of the camp complex on Jan. 27, 1945. This testimony clip reel was produced in partnership with The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme.
Liberation of Auschwitz, reel / Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Howard Chandler was enlisted by a Kapo guard to steal items from the train after new arrivals had been dropped off. He describes what happens to him when other guards catch him with contraband. 
a70, auschwitz, male, jewish survivor, Howard Chandler / Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Martin Baranek describes how a group of Sinti Roma inmates were cleared out of the barracks to make room for the group of Jewish inmates of which he was a part.
a70, auschwitz, male, jewish survivor, Roma Sinti / Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Miriam Ziegler recalls how she reunited with other Holocaust survivors after she immigrated to Toronto. She also reflects on the famous photo of herself and other the children of Auschwitz photographed by Russian liberators.
a70, auschwitz, female, jewish survivor / Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Kitty Hart-Moxon recalls being able to see Crematorium 4 from her barracks window at Auschwitz II-Birkenau.
a70, auschwitz, female, jewish survivor / Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Anita Lasker-Wallfisch remembers when she was selected to be in the Auschwitz camp orchestra and when the orchestra would play for the SS.
clip, female, jewish survivor, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, camp orchestra, auschwitz / Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Anita Lasker-Wallfisch had a lucky moment while being processed at the Sauna in Auschwitz-Birkenau.  One of the girls processing her asked her what she did prior to landing in that place of unspeakable horror. “I played the cello,” she answered. That surreal conversation, not far from the gas chambers at Birkenau, would save her life.  As a member of the Auschwitz women's orchestra, playing the cello meant respite from heavy labor.  
Auschwitz70, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, memory, music, op-eds / Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Edgar Wildfeuer of Argentina speaks of his forced labor assignment in carpentry for the Deutsche Ausrüstungswerke (DAW) Corporation in Auschwitz.
clip, auschwitz, a70, male / Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Shaul Hazan, who worked as a Sonderkommando at Auschwitz, describes what he witnessed at the crematoriums. He details not only the gruesome cleanup, but also the process the Nazis used to administer the gas.
auschwitz, a70, male, jewish survivor, sonderkommando / Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Shortly after the Germans fled Auschwitz, well-meaning Russian liberators provided food to children. Tragically, some would die from eating too quickly. Yehudit Sadeh was suffering from dysentery, which proved fortuitous because it prevented her from eating. She describes how a doctor took pains to nurse her back to health until she could walk again and catch a transport back to Czechoslovakia. 
a70, auschwitz, female, jewish survivor, liberation / Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Jewish survivor Ina Rabner of Brazil remembers the selection process she and the other women prisoners underwent upon their arrival to Auschwitz. She also recalls how, amidst the terrifying process, she saved her sister from execution, hiding her sibling’s graying hair from Mengele.
a70, auschwitz, female, jewish survivor, Josef Mengele, selection / Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Jewish survivor Nissin Soriano of Argentina recalls the intake procedures he experienced in Auschwitz. He describes the shaving, numbering, and disinfecting processes.
a70, auschwitz, male, jewish survivor / Wednesday, January 21, 2015
/ Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Bobbie Downs saw firsthand how genocide affects people when she taught Sudanese refugees in Cairo, and she will expand on this knowledge when she joins survivors, educators, students and thousands of others to attend the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on January 27.
/ Wednesday, January 21, 2015
USC Shoah Foundation spent seven months researching the identities of every child in the liberation photo of the children behind the barbed wire, and reunited four of them yesterday in Krakow.
/ Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Lyndsay Fleming teaches sixth grade social studies at East Cobb Middle School in Marietta, Georgia.I first learned about IWitness from Jane Moore during a professional learning day. I was interested in using the website in my classroom because of the primary and secondary sources and interviews of Holocaust survivors. One of the major benefits of the website is the premade lesson and activities as well as being able to create your own. 
/ Thursday, January 22, 2015
The Kizito Kalima Information Quest in IWitness introduces students to the Rwandan Tutsi Genocide and the story of Kizito Kalima, one of its survivors.
/ Thursday, January 22, 2015
Steven Howell realized how important it is to teach the Holocaust when he encountered anti-Semitism in his own classroom.He had just begun teaching at James A. Garfield High School, a small rural school in Garettsville, Ohio, when he found that the students had not read The Diary of Anne Frank. He taught them the historical context of the book, which they knew little about, but after two weeks he walked into his classroom to find a cross with two swastikas, on which was printed “Back off.”
/ Friday, January 23, 2015
Auschwitz survivor Zuzana Weiszova describes how the fatigued Russian liberators entered the death camp and, after deciphering the Germans were gone, asked survivors if they had any vodka. The Russians cooked a modest feast and shared it with all.
a70, auschwitz, female, jewish survivor, subtitled / Thursday, January 22, 2015
 In commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 70th anniversary of the liberation of AuschwitzJoin us for the US film premiere of "German Concentration Camps Factual Survey" Museum of Tolerance9786 W. Pico Blvd., Los AngelesTuesday, January 27 at 7 p.m. Presented by Museum of Tolerance, USC Shoah Foundation with the support of the British Council
/ Friday, January 23, 2015
/ Tuesday, January 27, 2015
/ Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Auschwitz was one of five death camps established by the Nazis in Poland where Jews were taken to be murdered during the so-called “Final Solution,” a euphemism for the their genocide. We know it through the horrific photos of trains filled with Jews, of men being split from women, parents from children, of the uniformed Nazi wagging his finger, and of the brick chimneys billowing smoke. But there is a much more intimate story still to be heard.
Auschwitz70, PastisPresent, holocaust memorial day, op-eds / Tuesday, January 27, 2015
The sense of history in the making was palpable Monday in Krakow, Poland, where more than 20 staff members of USC Shoah Foundation — The Institute for Visual History and Education attended a reception to honor more than 100 Auschwitz survivors on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the death camp.
a70, auschwitz / Tuesday, January 27, 2015
As the number of Holocaust survivors dwindles, it falls to future generations to ensure their stories remain vibrant and strong.
/ Monday, January 26, 2015
Seventy years after the camp was liberated, institute helps bring survivors, teachers and others to milestone event. The Auschwitz camp is seen at the end of the tracks.
/ Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Roman Kent, Auschwitz survivor, speaking at the commemorationIt took months of preparation. But there is little one can do to prepare for a visit to Auschwitz.
a70, auschwitz / Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Dr. Jared McBride, 2014-2015 recipient of the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research's Douglas and Margee Greenberg Research Fellowship discusses how oral history and testimony can be integrated with existing archival documents to recreate a micro-level history of the Holocaust in western Ukraine.
presentation / Thursday, January 29, 2015
Historian Richard G. Hovannisian talks of straddling two cultures — and the ‘forgotten genocide’
armenia, collection, Armenian Genocide / Monday, February 2, 2015

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