Longtime USC Shoah Foundation board member Mickey Shapiro has given a gift to fund an endowed research fellowship program at the Institute’s Center for Advanced Genocide Research in honor of his parents, Sara and Asa Shapiro, who both survived the Holocaust.

Moshe Avital describes the two public schools in Czechoslovakia and how most Jewish students went to the Czech school and the non-Jewish students went to the Russian school. His Czech school was very strict and taught at a very high level, which provided him the opportunity to learn about Czech language, literature, geography, and many other subjects.

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 January 26, 2015, in Krakow.

USC Shoah Foundation is sorry to learn of the passing of Aleksander Laks, the first Holocaust survivor to give his testimony to USC Shoah Foundation in Brazil and a special friend of the Institute. Laks passed away July 21 at age 88. Laks survived the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz and a death march as a teenager. He immigrated to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and became a leader of the survivor community there as president of the Sherit Hapleita (Holocaust survivors’ organization).

USC Shoah Foundation is saddened to learn of the passing of Johnny Strange, a record-holding adventurer and supporter of USC Shoah Foundation.

USC Shoah Foundation is saddened to learn of the passing of Erna Viterbi, philanthropist and longtime supporter of USC Shoah Foundation. Erna Finci Viterbi, a descendant of Sephardic Jews, was born in Sarajevo but fled Yugoslavia with her family during World War II. They were deported to the Parma region of Italy and interned in the village Gramignazzo di Sissa, but were saved from deportation to the extermination camps by the townspeople. Erna and her family were able to escape to Switzerland for the rest of the war. In 1950, they moved to California.

We are sad to learn of the passing of Thomas Blatt, a Holocaust survivor who was one of the few people to survive an escape from the Sobibor death camp in 1943. He was 88. Born April 15, 1927, in Lublin, Poland, Blatt also served as a witness at the 2009 trial of the camp guard John Demjanjuk.

USC Shoah Foundation is sad to learn of the passing of Sir Nicholas Winton, the organizer of the Czechoslovakian Kindertransport and one of the most beloved rescuers of the Holocaust. Winton was 106 years old.

At a time when antisemitism is on the rise, USC Shoah Foundation’s Countering Antisemitism Through Testimony program aims to push back against its spread. The Institute has been recording video testimonies of people whose lives have been disrupted by contemporary acts of violent or virulent antisemitism, as well as experts on the matter and advocates who have made a dedicated effort to counter the hate. This video includes excerpts of testimonies from survivors and witnesses of a synagogue attack in Copenhagen that USC Shoah Foundation recorded for this new collection.

Looking into a mirror and making sure her hair looked just so, Yevnigue Salibian didn’t notice me as I was taking her picture. It took a few seconds, but when she finally realized I had documented her act of vanity, she smiled coyly.

As a survivor of the genocide, Rosalina Tuyuc Velásquez fully understands the complexities involved not only in surviving such an atrocity, but also in healing and moving forward.

Today marks the launch of #BeginsWithMe, a social media campaign led by USC Shoah Foundation that encourages people to share what they will do to learn from the Holocaust and help fight prejudice and intolerance.

Andrew Ferber, son of Holocaust survivor Roman Ferber, visited USC Shoah Foundation to present the Institute with a copy of his father’s book Journey of Ashes: A Boyhood in the Holocaust. The book is available on Amazon.

A testimony-based audiovisual resource for educators in Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary is now available online.

Students learn the fascinating story of Helen Fagin, who survived the Holocaust running a clandestine school, living under a false identity and even escaping deportation, in this Information Quest.

Now former USC students Nitya Ramanathan and Christina Schoellkopf share the first time they watched genocide survivor testimony and how it inspired them to make a real difference in the world.

Australian teacher Sarah Warby describes the profound impact teaching with Holocaust survivor testimony has, especially for one student who changed his life for the better.

ext week the USC Shoah Foundation will host the Association of Holocaust Organizations (AHO) 2015 Winter Seminar: “Fading Memories and Emerging Voices: The Changing State of Holocaust Research.”

Los Angeles, Jan. 9, 2015 – USC Shoah Foundation and USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism will present an advance screening on Jan. 15 of “Voices of Auschwitz,” a new CNN documentary telling the stories of four survivors from the Nazi German Concentration and extermination camp. The hour-long special is hosted by CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, himself the son of Holocaust survivors.The 6 p.m. event at the newly opened Wallis Annenberg Hall is free and open to the public.

Hosted by CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, the film tells the stories of four survivors from the Nazi German concentration camp.“Voices of Auschwitz” will air nationally on Jan. 27 to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Auschwitz liberation.The USC screening will be followed by a half-hour panel discussion featuring two CNN producers. Stephen Smith, executive director of USC Shoah Foundation, will moderate.

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 12, 2015 – In an event that underscores the expanding mission of USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education, a scholar-in-residence at the Institute will give a public talk Jan. 15 about his cutting-edge research and upcoming book on atrocities committed in the Nazi-occupied region of what is now western Ukraine during World War II.

“Voices of Auschwitz” tells the stories of four survivors from the Nazi German Concentration and extermination camp. The hour-long special is hosted by CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer.

USC Shoah Foundation and USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism will present an advance screening on Jan. 15 of “Voices of Auschwitz,” a new CNN documentary telling the stories of four survivors from the Nazi German Concentration and extermination camp. The hour-long special is hosted by CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, himself the son of Holocaust survivors.

Henry Kress remembers hearing that his sister was imprisoned in the women barracks in Auschwitz II-Birkenau and how he was able to see her despite being in a different sub camp of the Auschwitz camp complex. This is the 58th testimony clip in the series 70 Days of Testimony: Leading up to the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz.

Dr. Jared McBride is the first recipient of the Margee and Douglas Greenberg Research Fellowship at USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research.

Thursday, February 24th, 2015, 7:00 PM Ray Stark Family Theatre Over 200,000 young women, known as 'comfort women,' were systematically exploited as Japanese military sex slaves during World War II. The comfort women system is considered the largest case of human trafficking in the 20th century. 

A lecture with Ugur Üngör, Ph.D., Utrecht University

Erwin Herling describes how he used his resources to bribe SS officers to help him leave Auschwitz when the camp was being evacuated. This is the 59th testimony clip in the series 70 Days of Testimony: Leading up to the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz.