Cynthia Schirmer currently oversees the finances and business operations of the Institute. She has worked for the Shoah Foundation since March 2016. Prior to that, Cynthia worked as the Shoah Foundation’s Business Officer (while employed at the Dornsife Business Office) from December 2013 thru December 2015. Cynthia has a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of La Verne, and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics with a minor in Computer Science from Cal State Fullerton.

USC Shoah Foundation worked closely with The Survivor team to bring the important film to the screen and received a production credit. Assistance included providing access to Haft’s and other survivors’ testimonies in the Visual History Archive, and consulting with the producers to ensure historical accuracy. Crispin Brooks is curator of the Visual History Archive and over the years has played a key role in archiving its testimonies. He is also immersed in Eastern European studies. He spoke to us about consulting on The Survivor.

USC Shoah Foundation last week joined President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden for a screening of HBO’s new Holocaust film The Survivor—the first official showing of a film in the White House theater since the president assumed office.

"It's impossible to describe the euphoria, the happiness that we finally, finally are coming home." Moshe Shamir survived slave labor camps and a ghetto in Transnistria. He was on his way to Palestine in 1947 when British border patrol diverted his ship to Cyprus and placed him in an internment camp. He was still in that camp on Friday, May 14, 1948 when he learned of the establishment of the State of Israel. 

Watch her full testimony Read Vladka Meed's remarkable story of resistance

In the Special Collections at the University of Southern California Libraries there is a book – large, heavy, and musty, it contains the names of thousands of Holocaust survivors who lived in the Pest region of Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, in 1947. (Holocaust Survivors of the Jewish Community of Pest register, Collection no. 6057, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University of Southern California)

Barnabas Balint is a PhD candidate in History at Magdalen College, University of Oxford, UK and the 2021-2022 Breslauer, Rutman, and Anderson Research Fellow at the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research. Read more about him here. 

USC Shoah Foundation has added a tour of the Armenian Genocide Martyrs Monument in Montebello, California to its IWalk mobile application, making it the first Armenian Genocide site of memory to be featured on the innovative educational platform.

An animated short film that brings to life the remarkable childhood journey of media personality, author and Holocaust survivor Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer netted one of the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival’s three coveted Audience Awards last month. Produced by USC Shoah Foundation and Delirio Films, Ruth: A Little Girl’s Big Journey traces Dr. Ruth’s escape from Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. The film was awarded the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival’s Best Short Film prize in early April.

The 2021-2022 William P. Lauder Junior Interns program wrapped up last month with special guest Jewish Holocaust survivor Dr. Elena Nightingale calling on participants to speak up when confronted by discrimination and injustice. “Young people's voices are listened to [and] have more power than you think. Don’t be a bystander,” the physician and human rights activist told the interns at the final session of the 10-week program. “Make your voices heard.”

Lacey manages higher education programs and partners closely with students, faculty, and other campus organizations.

We mourn the loss of ten innocent lives in yet another mass shooting fueled by hate, this time at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. According to authorities, the 18-year-old alleged shooter drove 200 miles to the supermarket in the predominantly African American neighborhood and livestreamed the attack.

"When I look up [to] the dome, and the flag, I choke up — every morning!" In honor of Jewish American Heritage Month, we salute Tom Lantos, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1981-2008.     Watch Tom Lantos’ full testimony. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grX4jkVJfPA  

Herbert Zipper, a Vienna-born conductor and composer, was imprisoned in Dachau in 1938 and 1939. He describes how prisoners found humanity in poetry and music.

Herbert Zipper, a world-renowned conductor, composer and pioneer of the community arts movement in the United States, grew up in a Vienna of extremes: From his birth in 1904 until he fled in 1939, the Austrian capital transformed from the heights of science and culture to the depths of economic depression and the onslaught of violent antisemitism and Nazi rule.

Alexa Dollar flings open her arms and spins across the stage, relishing the moment as if she’s just arrived at a party thrown in her honor. She kicks out her leg and flutters back across the floor, chasing the piano’s tantalizing lilt. Drew Lybolt comes next, taking over the stage with powerful leaps and commanding twirls set to an insistent, almost argumentative, piano vignette.

USC Shoah Foundation’s interactive IWalk mobile app has been named a finalist in the Cool Tool Mobile App Solution category in the 2022 EdTech Awards, the world's largest recognition program for education technology.

Steve Acre was 9 years old during the Farhud, a Nazi-inspired pogrom in Baghdad in June, 1941. He recalls the Muslim neighbor who protected his family.

Ruth Pearl was six years old during the Farhud, a Nazi-inspired pogrom in Baghdad in June, 1941. She recalls her family's scramble to safety.

Elizabeth Spitz's father was a member of the Jewish Council in Satu Mare. On Shavuot 1944, he undertook an operation to provide challah to all the residents.

Hundreds of survivors of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi congregated in Salt Lake City over the weekend for the largest-ever international gathering of survivors. Organizers say the event, hosted by IBUKA-USA and supported by a number of organizations including USC Shoah Foundation, was a safe space for survivors to discuss issues including bringing genocide perpetrators to justice, preserving the memory of victims, and fighting against revisionism.

"Research With Testimonies: Featuring the Center's 2021 Lev Student Research Fellows” Nicholas Bredie (USC PhD candidate in Literature and Creative Writing) and Atharva Tewari (USC undergraduate student, Global Studies and Journalism major) 2021 Beth and Arthur Lev Student Research Fellow  April 12, 2022

As a novelist, I am fascinated by decisions. Choice, real or imagined, is what separates tragedy from mythology. Decisions, always made with incomplete understanding, shape the arc of lives and narrative.