Paul Parks talks about witnessing the aftermath of the Holocaust and what it meant to his work in the civil rights movement, including his work with Martin Luther King, Jr.

David Jakubowski talks about the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the various physical confrontations that occurred on April 19, 1943.

U.S. liberator Walter Mason reminisces on his efforts to liberate the prisoners of Buchenwald concentration camp. Although they were warned about the conditions of the camp, he discusses that there was no way of being prepared for what they saw that day.

       

In this program, Stephen D. Smith, the Finci Viterbi Executive Director of USC Shoah Foundation, and Mary Pat Higgins, President, and CEO of the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, will discuss the cutting-edge new technologies in storytelling and virtual reality and how they are being implemented in the museum space.

In this clip from the Visual History Archive, Elise Taft describes a moment of hope and joy in her family’s darkest times. It’s with those sentiments that we wish all of our Armenian friends and colleagues a Merry Christmas. May the holiday be as bright as the stars described by Elise in her poignant testimony.

As we watched the violence unfold at the US Capitol, accompanied by documented displays of white supremacy, antisemitic tropes and other forms of hate, we are reminded of the words of United States Congressman Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor to have served in congress. In this clip, Rep. Lantos describes his motivation to serve his country...and the emotions he felt each morning as he approached the Capitol Building.

Now, many (many) months into this fight against Covid-19, it feels like we are rewriting our own story. It is like our obsession with separation has been viewed in a new lens, a wider one. The stories we are now drawn to are those of connections, even if experienced by individuals who are thousands of miles apart. And, once again, when digging into the Visual History Archive for stories of the past that exemplify this idea, there is no shortage of testimonies to lean on. One story in particular involves a reunion between Betty Grebenschikoff and Ana María Wahrenberg.

As a violent mob invaded the United States Capitol in an attempt to derail the electoral process, documented instances of antisemitism, anti-black racism, and other forms of hatred emerged.  

An online lecture by Wolf Gruner, Founding Director of the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research, organized by The Wiener Holocaust Library

The USC Casden Institute presents a Casden Conversation featuring Dr. Wolf Gruner in conversation with Dr. Steve Ross

Commissioned by Carnegie Hall and presented as part of the 2019 Create Justice forum, The Just and the Blind is a powerful multimedia experience that illuminates the unseen and under-heard experiences of incarcerated youth and their families. Artfully and powerfully combining live performance, short films, and honest conversation, spoken-word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph, composer Daniel Bernard Roumain, and street-dance pioneer

Two new books published today capture the extraordinary story of Lisa Jura, an Austrian Jewish refugee who survived the Holocaust and then pursued her dream to become a concert pianist.  

This documentary chronicles the Holocaust as experienced in Italy, from the racial laws Mussolini enacted in 1938 through the German invasion in 1943 and the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945. The experiences are made personal through the use of testimony from the archive of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education. Nine Italian citizens, all survivors of Auschwitz, share their stories; their testimonies are woven among personal and historical photographs and additional archival footage.

In January 2017, USC Shoah Foundation launched 100 Days to Inspire Respect to provide teachers of civics, history, English and other subjects new thought-provoking resources for the first 100 days of the incoming administration.   

1:00 pm PST/4:00 pm EST/8:00 am AEDT (+1)  Join USC Annenberg for a conversation about combatting anti-Semitism in the United States.

11:30 am PST/2:30 pm EST/6:30 am AEDT (+1) The film will be available to stream for a fee of $12 between Jan. 25-28.  Live Virtual Conversation event is free and features:  Zuzanna Surowy, Lead Actress  Steven Oritt, Director/Producer Mickey Shapiro, Executive Producer, USC Shoah  Foundation Board of Councilors Exec. Committee Member Moderated by Stephen D. Smith, Co-Producer and Finci-Viterbi Executive Director, USC Shoah Foundation 

Liberation Heroes: The Last Eyewitnesses explores the journeys of Liberators and Liberation Witnesses drawing parallels between the past and present. These one-of-a-kind stories of World War II heroes serve as a compelling reminder of what is at stake as antisemitism and xenophobia have reached a new crisis level, and as a call to action to stand against hatred in all its forms.

As part of USC Shoah Foundation’s collaborations for International Holocaust Remembrance Day, excerpts of seven Dimensions in Testimony interviews are being projected on to the facade of Beit Yaakov – Geneva's Great Synagogue.  Dimensions in Testimony is an initiative by USC Shoah Foundation that enables people to ask questions that prompt real-time responses from pre-recorded video interviews with Holocaust survivors and other witnesses to genocide. 

USC Shoah Foundation this week will launch a Teaching with Testimony Webinar for K-5 educators featuring the exclusive global premiere of Ruth: A Little Girl’s Big Journey, an animated short film that brings to life the remarkable childhood journey of media personality, author and Holocaust survivor Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer, known the world over as Dr. Ruth.  

Today, on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a complex of concentration and extermination camps, we take the time to honor the millions of victims of the Holocaust by listening to those who survived these atrocities, and using their remarkable testimonies of survival and loss to cultivate empathy and respect in future generations so that these atrocities may never happen again. “History shows that the only way to stop genocide is to sound the alarm before it is too late.” 

The third annual Stronger Than Hate Challenge is now open and offers students the opportunity to win $10,000 in prizing. Students aged 13-18 are encouraged to submit a project demonstrating how a community can be stronger than hate. Full rules and submission details are available here.

In this clip from her 1996 testimony, Franka Berk discusses the importance of tolerance and loving one another.

Join USC Shoah Foundation and the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center for a digital ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the new Dimensions in Testimony exhibit, a new, permanent exhibit at Union Terminal that utilizes artificial-intelligence technology to facilitate “virtual conversations” with Holocaust survivors.

Alan Moskin is the first WWII Liberator to be filmed for Dimensions in Testimony, detailing his harrowing experience of liberating Gunskirchen concentration camp in Austria. Visitors to The National WWII Museum will be able to interact with Alan's biography beginning 4 February.

The coup in Myanmar earlier this week, ending the country's experiment with limited democracy, brought to power military and police implicated in carrying out genocide against the Rohingya people in 2017.    This troubling development could result in further consequences for the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities in Myanmar. More than 600,000 people remain at risk—perhaps now even more than ever.    

Two museums have opened installations of Dimensions in Testimony, USC Shoah Foundation's interactive biography series.  In New Orleans, visitors to the National World War II Museum can interact with Staff Sergeant Alan Moskin, the first WWII Liberator filmed for Dimensions in Testimony. Moskin was a member of the 66th Infantry Regiment, 71st Infantry Division, that liberated Gunskirchen concentration camp in Austria. The exhibition runs through July 25, 2021.