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USC Shoah Foundation, writer Robin Migdol sits down with Kia Hays project manager of New Dimensions in Testimony.
ndt / Thursday, August 4, 2016
Highlights of the 2016 Master Teacher program in Budapest. A USC Shoah Foundation’s professional development initiative, Master Teacher (formerly Teaching with Testimony) is a two-year program that incorporates workshops, mentoring, and community building to prepare educators to search for and utilize testimony from the Visual History Archive, as well as other digital learning tools such as IWitness.
master teacher / Thursday, August 4, 2016
Carlos Mendes was the son of Aristides Sousa Mendes, Portuguese diplomat stationed in Bordeaux in the late 1930s who issued tens of thousands of visas to Jewish families, in direct violation of anti-Jewish laws instituted by Portugal’s fascist government at the time. Carlos Mendes reflects on his father’s fundamental willingness to risk his career and life to save persecuted Jews.
clip, aid provider, Aristides Sousa Mendes, JFCS collection, Carlos Mendes / Friday, August 5, 2016
Carlos Mendes explains the sadness he feels for his father’s overlooked heroism and the pride he feels for the work his father did.  Aristides de Sousa Mendes was a Portuguese diplomat stationed in Bordeaux in the late 1930s who issued tens of thousands of visas to Jewish families, in direct violation of anti-Jewish laws instituted by Portugal’s fascist government at the time. For this act of resistance, Sousa Mendes faced trials and conviction, leaving him to live out the rest of his life in poverty and disgrace, and his 15 children scattered all over Europe and the U.S.
clip, male, aid provider, Carlos Mendes, JFCS collection, aristides de sousa mendes / Friday, August 5, 2016
Esther Dresner expresses the gratitude she feels to Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a man who did the right thing, regardless of the price.  Aristides de Sousa Mendes was a Portuguese diplomat stationed in Bordeaux in the late 1930s who issued tens of thousands of visas to Jewish families, in direct violation of anti-Jewish laws instituted by Portugal’s fascist government at the time. For this act of resistance, Sousa Mendes faced trials and conviction, leaving him to live out the rest of his life in poverty and disgrace, and his 15 children scattered all over Europe and the US.
clip, jewish survivor, female, Esther Dresner, aristides de sousa mendes / Friday, August 5, 2016
Jewish survivor Henri Deutsch explains the extent of Aristides de Sousa Mendes’ deep commitment to aiding persecuted Jews.  Aristides de Sousa Mendes was a Portuguese diplomat stationed in Bordeaux in the late 1930s who issued tens of thousands of visas to Jewish families, in direct violation of anti-Jewish laws instituted by Portugal’s fascist government at the time.
clip, male, henri deutsch, jewish survivor, visas, aristides de sousa mendes / Friday, August 5, 2016
Henri Deutsch reflects on the sacrifice that Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes  made to save the lives of so many Jews during the Holocaust. Aristides de Sousa Mendes was a Portuguese diplomat stationed in Bordeaux in the late 1930s who issued tens of thousands of visas to Jewish families, in direct violation of anti-Jewish laws instituted by Portugal’s fascist government at the time.
clip, male, jewish survivor, henri deutsch, aristides de sousa mendes / Friday, August 5, 2016
Holocaust survivor Gerda Cohn looks back fondly on her childhood school. It was a supportive environment and children even received candy on the first day of school.
clip / Tuesday, August 9, 2016
In this clip, Esperance Kaligirwa recalls being rounded up by men intent on killing her and her family but were spared by the actions of her neighbors who interceded for them.
Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, rwanda, rwandan survivor, female, résistance / Wednesday, August 10, 2016
This clip is an excerpt of the footage J. Michael Hagopian filmed of Armenian Genocide survivor Abdulla Garabed's funeral, just two weeks after he filmed Garabed's testimony. The first part of the clip is the procession of attendees and the ceremony, with no audio. The second part is a short clip of the funeral ceremony that took place.
clip / Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Armenian survivor Dirouhi Haigas describes how the Armenians in her town were told to pack very few belongings and leave all their posessions behind in the days leading up to their deportation to the desert of Der Zor. Her father and several other men were hung in the church square.
clip / Thursday, August 11, 2016
Jacek Dabrowski remembers visiting Maximilian Kolbe at his monastery before Kolbe was taken prisoner. Dabrowski was taken to Pawiak prison only two weeks after Kolbe was deported from Pawiak to Auschwitz. 
clip, male, political prisone, Maximilian Kolbe / Friday, August 12, 2016
Jan Dudzinski recalls his interaction with a priest he would later discover was Maximillian Kolbe at Pawiak prison. 
clip, male jewish survivor, Jan Dudzinski, Maximillian Kolbe / Friday, August 12, 2016
Michael Preisler explains the story of Maximilian Kolbe volunteering himself in place of another prisoner, who was going to be killed. Preisler was a prisoner at Pawiak prison after Kolbe had been deported from Pawiak to Auschwitz. 
clip, jewish survivor, Michael Preisler, Maximillan Kolbe / Friday, August 12, 2016
Liberator Martin Becker describes the languages he learned in school and laments how his speaking skills have deteriorated without practice. He was able to immigrate to America in 1938 through a scholarship from an American university in Cairo, Egypt.
clip / Friday, August 12, 2016
Walter Berger describes his family and upbringing before the war began in Czechoslovakia. His brother, Sam, is the subject of the new book "Roses in a Forbidden Garden: A Holocaust Love Story," written by Sam's granddaughter Elise Garibaldi.
clip / Monday, August 15, 2016
Gabriel Krause recalls hearing about the Kielce Pogrom in 1946, Poland.
clip, male, jewish survivor, Gabriel Krause, Kielce / Monday, August 15, 2016
Malwina Moses describes how anti-Semitism continued in Poland after the war including the Keilce Pogrom in 1946.
clip, female, jewish survivor, Kielce, malwina moses, poland, antiSemitism / Monday, August 15, 2016
Rachel Huber remembers traveling through Poland after the end of the war and hearing about the killing of Jews, those who survived the Holocaust during the Kielce Pogrom in 1946.
clip, female, jewish survivor, kielce pogrom, poland, rachel huber / Monday, August 15, 2016
Frank Fukuhara, a Japanese soldier during World War II, recalls how he was allowed to return home to Hiroshima about a month after VJ Day. He didn't know about the atomic bomb until he was on the train and heard other passengers talking about it.
clip / Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Holocaust survivor Romana Farrington breaks down stereotypes about Catholic Poles during the Holocaust. This clip is part of the new IWitness activity What is "The Danger of a Single Story"?.
clip / Thursday, August 18, 2016
Frances Zatz describes the Polish Home Army's uprising in Warsaw, Poland in August 1944, which was spurred by the belief that Soviet forces across the Vistula River would liberate them. The Soviet army did not intervene, leaving the Warsaw inhabitants to defend themselves against heavy German fire. Among Warsaw Rising fighters were Polish Jews who survived Warsaw Ghetto Uprising that took place a year earlier. Some of them were prisoners of Gesiowka Concentration Camp liberated by Polish Home Army at the very beginning of the Risin, on August 4th, 1944.
clip / Friday, August 19, 2016
In 1912, only two athletes from the Ottoman Empire went  to compete in the Olympics - both were Armenian. Vahram Papazyan was one of them. During his testimony, he recalls fainting in the middle of his race because of anxiety over what he would do and what could happen if he won. During the 1912 Stockholm Olympics the Finnish team, who had participated since 1908 under the Russian flag, refused to march under the Russian flag and was allowed to do so.
clip / Monday, August 22, 2016
Holocaust survivor Michael Preisler describes how Father Maximilian Kolbe volunteered to take the place of a man who was to be killed at Auschwitz for attempting to escape. Kolbe was locked in a bunker without food or water for two weeks before he was finally killed by lethal injection.
clip / Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Holocaust survivor Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis urges Jews to continue their practice of Judaism and to pass their love for their faith on to their children. Esther passed away August 23, 2016.
clip / Wednesday, August 24, 2016
Gordon Klasky describes the conditions of the Kutno ghetto in Poland.
/ Wednesday, August 24, 2016
After a short stay in the city's orphanage in Warsaw, Michal Glowiński was taken to a Catholic orphanage run by nuns in Turkowice, where he was hidden along with over thirty other Jewish children. The sisters showed dedication and kindness for hiding Jewish children. This is one of the first Polish-language clips to be added to the IWitness Watch page.
clip / Thursday, August 25, 2016
Barbara Stimler describes the conditions of the Kutno ghetto in Poland.
cagr / Thursday, August 25, 2016
Jack Bernstein describes the excitement in France when World War II ended and France was liberated from German occupation. There was a moment of panic when people spotted German soldiers marching through the town, but they were prisoners of war in the custody of French soldiers.
clip / Friday, August 26, 2016
Jack Bernstein describes the excitement in France when World War II ended and France was liberated from German occupation. There was a moment of panic when people spotted German soldiers marching through the town, but they were prisoners of war in the custody of French soldiers.
clip / Friday, August 26, 2016

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