A presentation by Tim Cole (Bristol University), Alberto Giordano (Texas State University), Paul Jaskot (DePaul University), and Anne Knowles (University of Maine)Holocaust Geographies CollaborativeUSC, Social Sciences Building, Room 250

Maximilian Strnad, a young German scholar who is currently a fellow at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s research center, gave a public lecture at the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research focusing on the experiences of the last remaining Jews under the German Reich — intermarried Jews.

The USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research invites research proposals from advanced standing Ph.D. candidates for its 2016-2017 Margee and Douglas Greenberg Research Fellowship. The fellowship provides $4,000 support for dissertation research focused on testimony from the Visual History Archive.

Today is the day to join USC Shoah Foundation’s #BeginsWithMe campaign and donate to USC Shoah Foundation’s Annual Fund.

The 2014 cohort of Teaching with Testimony in the 21st Century in Poland reunited to share the lessons they piloted in their classrooms over the past year, with impressive results.

Hersch talks about anti-Semitism in Poland and the denial amongst the Jewish people that anything terrible would really happen to them.

If you’ve ever watched genocide survivor testimony from the Visual History Archive and it spurned you to wonder what you can do to help prevent acts of intolerance and inhumanity, USC Shoah Foundation has an opportunity for you this holiday season.

When Michael Russell joined the USC Shoah Foundation staff in 2008, it wasn’t the first time his family had crossed paths with Holocaust survivors.His dad, Sonny, worked with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration after World War II, helping child Holocaust survivors get settled in England. Sonny even got to know Mayer Hersh, a well-known Holocaust survivor whose testimony is in the Visual History Archive.

Frieda talks about giving up her possessions and what life was like in the Warsaw ghetto. She talks about the education she received and how culture still continued to thrive in the ghetto.

Five more IWalks are in development in Hungary as part of a new initiative led by teachers who have graduated from USC Shoah Foundation’s Teaching with Testimony in the 21st Century professional development program.

USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research Director Wolf Gruner and Center Fellow Kiril Feferman will both present papers at the 47th Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies in Boston, Mass.Gruner will present "Letters and Memoranda: Overlooked Jewish Means of Opposition and Protest Against the Persecutin in Nazi Germany." Feferman will present "Responses of Ukrainian and Russian Jewish Religious Leadership to the Ukrainian Crisi"

Hyman Schwartzblatt describes how his mother, who had already been killed, visited him in a dream while he was in a Nazi prison and told him how to escape.

Esia Shor explains how a couple that she had worked for outside the Nowogrodek ghetto helped her disguise herself and hide when she ran to their house after escaping the ghetto. Today, Esia and 30 other Holocaust survivors were honored by New York Congressman Joseph Crowley in Bronx, New York, for their contributions to society.

Giving his testimony to USC Shoah Foundation in 1998 literally changed Hyman Schwartzblatt’s life.Schwartzblatt’s grandson, Jewish music producer and composer Eli Gerstner, said Schwartzblatt told his family almost nothing about his experiences during the Holocaust. And when he did happen to make an offhand comment about his survival, they never knew what to make of it. What was the truth?

Museum of Tolerance9786 West Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035Dec. 13, 2015, 4 p.m.No Asylum, directed by Paula Fouce, is the dramatic and tragic story of Otto Frank’s desperate attempts to secure American visas before going into hiding with his family in 1942. Based on recently-discovered letters by Otto Frank in the YIVO Institute of Jewish Research’s archives, the film also includes interviews with Anne Frank’s surviving family.The screening wil be followed by a Q&A with Eva Geiringer-Schloss, Otto Frank’s stepdaughter, and director Paula Fouce.

A new anthology "From Testimony to Story: Video Interviews about Nazi Crimes: Perspectives and Experiences in Four Countries" includes two chapters about USC Shoah Foundation, written by its regional consultants in Czech Republic and Poland.

It had been a long week and Renee Firestone was tired. But when a group of students showed up on Friday at the dark studio where she had spent days answering questions about her life, her mood quickly brightened, her energy restored.

Renee talks about her transition into American life after settling down with her husband in Los Angeles. It wasn't until she received a phone call from the Simon Wiesenthal Center asking her to tell her story that she thought seriously about sharing her testimony with the world. Hearing about a particular anti-Semitic event that occured in Los Angeles made Renee reflect on her experiences and motivated her to share her experiences.

Around the world, students are exploring genocide survivor testimony in IWitness – even in Pakistan.

The resolution was led by the Mission of the Republic of Armenia to the United Nations and had the support of over 80 member countries.

Auschwitz Sonderkommando survivor Dario Gabbai says he does not want to get revenge on the perpetrators of the Holocaust. He believes it is more impactful to have respectful dialogue.

USC Shoah Foundation’s liaison in Poland, Monika Koszyńska coordinates the Visual History Archive access sites in Poland; represents the Institute at conferences and seminars; organizes the Teaching with Testimony in the 21st Century training program for Polish educators; and coordinates fundraising and other outreach efforts. She is also on the staff of the Museum of the History of the Polish Jews’ education department, a Visual History Archive Access Site.

Poland faces a horrible wave of extremism after the election of a new right-wing government. As an educator and Polish citizen, I am not only scared by this type of radical hatred, but it also reminds me of the past because the same organization that marches on the streets of Polish cities today, organized boycotts of Jewish institutions and forbade Jewish students from studying at Polish universities before WWII.

Leo talks about the beginning of Jewish arrests and deportation in France, along with the rise of various camps in France such as Drancy that many Jewish people were sent to.

USC Shoah Foundation’s French consultant Emmanuel Debono published an article about USC Shoah Foundation and its use of testimony in the French review journal Études arméniennes contemporaines (Contemporary Armenian Studies).

Just a few months after he started working at USC Shoah Foundation, Clarence Leung was on his way to Shanghai for the 2015 USC Global Conference.Leung, who has a background in accounting, joined the staff as a budget analyst in the executive administration department, where he helps track the Institute’s expenses and other financial processes.

With the partnership of Arnold Mittelman, students can now exercise their creativity in a brand new way when learning about the Holocaust in IWitness.Mittelman is a theater producer, director, educator and administrator who has created almost 300 productions of plays, musicals and special events. He helped found and lead not-for-profit theaters including the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami. He is founder, president and producing artistic director of the National Jewish Theater Foundation (NJTF), which celebrates creativity and preserves Jewish culture in the performing arts.

Eva talks about her involvement with the Anne Frank Exhibition, which is about Anne's life and travels all around the world to educate students about the Holocaust through the eyes of a young girl. She assisted in the opening of a new Anne Frank exhibition in Vienna.

Deshou Chen describes how his father was murdered during the Nanjing Massacre, Dec. 13-14, 1937.

USC Shoah Foundation is co-hosting a film screening and Q&A about the new film No Asylum: The Untold Chapter of Anne Frank’s Story at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles on Sunday, Dec. 13 at 4 p.m.