This is an introduction to the Visual History Archive and an indepth demonstration of how to conduct searches.

How can a podcast encapsulate a generational turning point, reveal hidden histories, and make connections between Alfred Hitchcock and the Holocaust? When it is based on USC Shoah's Foundation's Visual History Archive of 55,000 audiovisual testimonies. With testimonies from over 60 countries and many experience groups including the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda, the possibilities for connections and intersections are many.

An online event with Lucy Sun (USC undergraduate student, History major) and Rachel Zaretsky (MFA candidate in Art, USC Roski School of Art and Design) 2020 Beth and Arthur Lev Student Research Fellows Organized by the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research

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USC Shoah Foundation mourns the passing of Holocaust survivor and friend of the Institute, Julio Botton. Julio first recorded a testimony for the Visual History Archive in 1998 and in March 2020 recorded a Dimensions in Testimony interactive biography in Spanish. He was also an active speaker for many years with the Museo Memoria y Tolerancia in Mexico City and elsewhere. 

In this talk, Lauren Cantillon explores the tensions and textures of emotions present in Jewish women’s personal memory narratives of sexual(ized) violence during the Holocaust. Drawing on interviews from the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, she highlights some of the numerous Jewish women who shared their stories within the context of a Holocaust testimony interview.

During the month of April, as we observe commemoration days for four genocides, we take the opportunity to raise awareness about all genocides, including those being perpetrated today. April is an opportunity for those committed to history and remembrance to alert others to the moral and physical dangers of denying the past and of ignoring atrocities occurring in our own times. Access events, educational resources, and other opportunities to commemorate the victims of genocide.

360-degree testimonies on location use the latest technology with a single camera that is able to capture the interviewee and the surrounding location in a single shot. This allows viewers to feel like they are standing in the location with the survivor. The locations might include a childhood home, a ghetto, a concentration camp, inside a museum or other places of key significance to a survivor’s personal history.

Explore the ways that our lives can be shaped by the experiences of our ancestors through the power of firsthand testimonies.

Presented by The Miller Center for Community Protection & Resilience, Rutgers University, International March of the Living and Maimonides Institute for Medicine, Ethics and the Holocaust, in cooperation with USC Shoah Foundation.

After escaping a Jewish ghetto in occupied Poland, 13-year-old Sara Guralnik hid in plain sight, passing as an orthodox Christian in the Ukrainian countryside, where she was taken in by a farmer and his wife who did not know her true identity. The award-winning film My Name Is Sara tells the story of her courage and her harrowing journey. Hear about Sara’s inspiring story and her legacy from her granddaughter and son, the film director, and the actress who portrays her, with context provided by a Museum historian.

Sara R. Horowitz, Professor of Comparative Literature and Jewish Studies at York University and an esteemed scholar of the Holocaust, has been named the 2020-2021 Sara and Asa Shapiro Scholar in Residence at the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research. She will deliver a public lecture and spend over a week in residence at the Center in March 2022.

On Monday I received a voicemail from Suzan Trevor that her father Marcus Segal had passed away. I had only just met Marcus, albeit virtually, weeks before when he shared his testimony with USC Shoah Foundation on January 26th. While saddened by the news of his passing, I’m filled with immense gratitude for having had the opportunity to hear his incredible life’s story in the final weeks of his life.