Public visits to USC Shoah Foundation give guests a chance to explore the life stories of survivors and witnesses to genocide preserved in the Visual History Archive, and how testimony is used to overcome prejudice, intolerance and hatred.Description:

When Maetal Haas-Kogan was just a few months old, her great-grandfather Benjamin Oudkerk gave his testimony to USC Shoah Foundation. Now, she’s a Harvard freshman and spending half of her winter break interning in USC Shoah Foundation’s education department.Haas-Kogan said she grew up hearing stories about her family’s survival of the Holocaust. Her great-grandfather had survived the war mostly hiding in the home of friends who were also part of the resistance underground movement, and adopted her grandfather as a young boy after the war.

Benjamin Oudkerk says that he decided to give his testimony so that his grandchildren could hear his story, and also to share how the kindness of one family saved his life.

The first IWitness Twitter chat for educators of 2016 will be hosted by Facing History and Ourselves, on Wednesday, Jan. 13 at 4 p.m. PST/7 p.m. EST.

In an effort to create a deeper engagement with educators online, USC Shoah Foundation’s IWitness will host Twitter chat's on the 2nd or 4th Wednesday of every month. Meet fellow IWitness educators, ask questions directly to the IWitness team and join the IWitness community.Follow the IWitness twitter account @USCIWitness and to join the chat follow and send tweets with #IWitnessChat.