Dario Gabbai recalls his experiences as a Sonderkommando in Auschwitz II-Birkenau. He was forced to usher people into gas chambers, and then haul out the bodies, take them to the crematorium, and clean up the room for the next group of victims.
GAM / Friday, March 25, 2016
When Zach Larkin was 13, he sat down with his great-grandfather to interview and record his stories about his experiences as a Hungarian Jew during the Holocaust. Larkin didn’t know that this would begin his journey researching this time period and interacting with survivor testimony.“[My great-grandfather] was a Holocaust survivor who didn’t like to talk about his experience with anyone, not even USC Shoah Foundation,” Larkin said. “But when I was 13, for some reason he talked to me and let me interview him and told me about his experience in Budapest in 1944.”
/ Monday, March 28, 2016
IWitness has added another update to help users more easily discover new content on the site.
iwitness / Monday, March 28, 2016
Jean Greenstein describes the three months he spent with two other men and a woman hiding in an underground bunker. At one point the German troops came into the town and made their headquarters directly above the bunker where Jean and the others were hiding.
clip / Monday, March 28, 2016
Tracy Sockalosky teaches 7th Grade Social Studies at Wilson Middle School in Natick, Mass. In January 2015, Sockalosky was one of the 25 educators who participated in the Auschwitz: The Past is Present professional development program in Poland.
/ Monday, March 28, 2016
This year I focused on eyewitness testimony to the Holocaust and it changed the experience for my students and for me.
GAM, op-eds / Thursday, March 31, 2016
At a training led by USC Shoah Foundation education staff, Rwandan teachers learned how to build IWitness activities and incorporate IWitness into the new Rwandan national curriculum.
iwitness, rwanda, rpep, kori street, Lesly Culp, kigali / Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Emily Kocontes is a junior at USC studying Popular Music Performance with a minor in Music Industry. Emily has been interning with USC Shoah Foundation for the communications department since September of 2015. 
/ Tuesday, March 29, 2016
I attended the event “Melodies of Auschwitz” at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel in Washington D.C. on Thursday, March 10, 2016, hosted by PNC Bank to recognize USC Shoah Foundation for its work in genocide education and preserving testimony of genocides around the world. The event was educational and meaningful, bringing together PNC clients, employees, and all other guests into a conversation about the importance of preserving testimony and what USC Shoah Foundation is all about.
Auschwitz70, music, students, interns, op-eds / Tuesday, March 29, 2016
When Luis Hernandez got to USC, he noticed something: Unlike in his native Brooklyn, now when he looked around he didn’t often see people who looked or acted like he did.“Being a person of color has been an interesting experience for me,” Hernandez said. “I’m the first person in my family to graduate high school and also go to college, so it was a big jump for me coming here to USC. Although USC is a very beautiful place and I love my school, you also notice the inconsistencies and the lack of inclusion sometimes.”
/ Wednesday, March 30, 2016
In his lecture at USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research March 29, Professor Dan Stone offered a global perspective of the origins and history of concentration camps.
cagr, lecture, concentration camp / Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Adela Ackerman describes seeing her sister for the first time after liberation.
clip / Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Louis Micheels describes the conditions inside Mechelen concentration camp in Belgium.
clip / Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Zovaira Rodriguez is the Procurement Specialist for the USC Shoah Foundation and has been with the institute for 3 years.  She works within our Operations Department overseeing and managing all purchasing requests along with vendor intake, setup, and requesting payments. Prior to the Institute, Zovaira received her Bachelors in Criminal Justice with a Minor in Anthropology from the California State University of Los Angeles.
/ Wednesday, March 30, 2016
USC Shoah Foundation partner Echoes and Reflections is launching a three-week online professional development webinar series for educators on Tuesday, April 4, 2016.
echoes and reflections, professional development / Thursday, March 31, 2016
Alina Bothe, PhD, the 2015-2016 USC Shoah Foundation Teaching Fellow, gave a public lecture at the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research focusing on the way users experience and relate to the testimonies in the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive.
cagr / Thursday, March 31, 2016
Never forget. Never again. These are common phrases used in Holocaust and genocide education. These are important statements especially when they evoke the real reason to study, learn, and teach about genocide. We must bring this content to students to empower them and encourage them to see beyond themselves. If done right, students become aware of the steps that lead to such atrocities. Teaching about genocide is the only way to have a lasting impact on our students, to affect their worldview, to help them understand that they can make a difference.
GAM, iwitness, education, Educator Resource, op-eds / Friday, March 25, 2016

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