On April 24, we call on the world to remember the genocide of the Armenian people. 109 years ago, during the First World War, Ottoman authorities arrested hundreds of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul). At the time, the Ottoman Empire was under the control of the relatively new leadership of the Young Turks; a party that had sought to create an ethnically homogenous Turkish state – a state that would have little space for the millions of Armenians then living in that empire.

The USC Shoah Foundations mourns the passing of friend and colleague Ita Gordon, an indexer, translator, mentor, and researcher who, for nearly thirty years, channeled her passion for testimony into diligent care and expertise that helped the organization become a world leader in collecting, preserving, and sharing Holocaust survivor testimony.

On April 21, the Pasadena Armenian Coalition will host a community-wide event at the Pasadena Armenian Genocide Memorial Monument to commemorate the 109th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The event will pay tribute to the enduring strength and resiliency of the survivors of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, while honoring the memory of the more than 1.5 Million victims who lost their lives 109 years ago. The event will feature survivor testimonies from the Visual History Archive, followed by the keynote speaker, Sedda Antekelian, USC Shoah Foundation Senior Learning and Development Specialist, as well as remarks from Congresswoman Judy Chu. Students from local Armenian schools will recite poems and songs to conclude the event.

We mourn the passing of Dana Schwartz, 89, a Holocaust survivor and dedicated interviewer for the USC Shoah Foundation, who died on May 9 in Los Angeles. Dana, who later became a teacher and marriage and family therapist, was four when the Second World War started. She and her mother escaped the Lwów ghetto and survived in hiding.

Living Links, the first national organization created to engage and empower third-generation (3G) descendants of Holocaust survivors, has joined forces with the USC Shoah Foundation. The new partnership will expand a Living Links program that teaches 3Gs to share their family stories in classrooms and with community groups to counter antisemitism, bigotry and hate. At a time when the number of Holocaust survivors is dwindling and antisemitism is on the rise, 3Gs are uniquely positioned to offer personal accounts about how unchecked intolerance and hate led to the Holocaust.

“Being together with Dita - We did it together. [...] Neither of us would have survived without the other, and we both realize that.”⠀⠀ Margot Heuman was born in Hellenthal, Germany in 1929. In 1942, she and her family were sent to Theresienstadt ghetto, where Margot and her sister were put into a youth home. ⠀

In October 1942, when deportations from the Warsaw ghetto paused, more than 20 youth groups and underground units coalesced into a united front. Vladka Meed channeled her despair at losing her family into fighting the Nazis.

Although antipathy toward Jews and Judaism became a hallmark of medieval Christianity, pinpointing the ancient origins of Christian Anti-Judaism poses challenges. Rabbi Joshua Garroway, PhD, examines the writings of Paul, Justin, Augustine, and other early Christian thinkers to trace the origins of Christian Anti-Judaism.

For years, Celina Biniaz, one of the youngest people saved by Oskar Schindler, did not tell anyone – not even her children – that she was a Holocaust survivor. She feared no one could comprehend what she had been through, and she didn’t want to impose the trauma of her childhood upon her son and daughter. Celina’s reluctance to speak ended in 1994. That year, director Steven Spielberg brought Oskar Schindler’s story to the screen with Schindler’s List. He established Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, which later became the USC Shoah Foundation.

Join us on April 15 at the Institute of Armenian Studies for an academic lecture on the Armenian Genocide and its related USC holdings by Institute Project Manager Manuk Avedikyan.

Join us for a talk examining the strategies of concealment described in the USC Shoah Foundation testimonies of Jewish refugees who made the journey to Japan to escape Nazi persecution in the early 1940s.

The USC Shoah Foundation, USC Casden Institute, and USC Hillel held a panel discussion in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The Division of Academic Programs at the USC Shoah Foundation invites applications for its Azrieli Research Fellowship for PhD candidates and early-career scholars during the 2025-2026 academic year.

The Division of Academic Programs at the USC Shoah Foundation invites applications for its Azrieli Research Fellowship for Graduate Students during the 2025-2026 academic year. Any person who is pursuing a Master’s degree (M.A., M.Ed., MMSt., MI, or other recognized Master’s-level program) or PhD may apply.

Steve's passion for fighting antisemitism and educating the next generation led him to join the Board of Councilors in 1997 when the organization was in its infancy. He has remained committed to our mission, serving as Chair of the Board of Councilors from 2015 to 2019.

Shaul Ladany, an 88-year-old world-record holding speed-walker, has defied death multiple times. As a small child, he survived the German occupation of Budapest and Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Then, representing Israel in the 1972 Munich Olympics, he narrowly escaped the massacre that took the lives of 11 Israeli athletes.

The USC Shoah Foundation announced a partnership with the Berlin-based Kreuzberg Initiative against Anti-Semitism (KIgA), a collaboration that will increase European access to testimonies of survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides and create wide-reaching programming to counter antisemitism.

With antisemitic harassment and violence surging ferociously around the globe, the USC Shoah Foundation establishes a Countering Antisemitism Laboratory to research and combat one of the world's most virulent hatreds. The USC Shoah Foundation seeks an inaugural director for the Countering Antisemitism Laboratory, which will work with scholars, journalists, policymakers, and other leadership groups to address all forms of antisemitism. The Laboratory will house a major collection of testimonies from survivors of antisemitic violence, training programs centered on understanding and responding to antisemitism, an initiative focused on digital antisemitism and Holocaust denial, and other practical research efforts.

As we celebrate our 30th anniversary, we pay tribute to some of the people who helped build the organization. Ita Gordon has worked as an indexer, translator, mentor, and researcher at the USC Shoah Foundation since its founding 30 years ago, channeling her passion for the organization’s mission into diligent care and helping to establish the USC Shoah Foundation as a world leader in collecting, preserving, and sharing survivor testimony.

New York, NY (October 14, 2024) —Nearly 700 guests convened for an unforgettable evening of celebration and inspiration at the USC Shoah Foundation’s Ambassadors for Humanity Gala. This milestone event marked the institute's 30th anniversary, honoring the resilience of Holocaust survivors while emphasizing the critical importance of preserving their testimonies for future generations. 

On January 23, 2002, Ruth Pearl dreamt that her son, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, was scared and in trouble. In her dream, she told him she would bring him tea and take care of him. She woke up in a panic and sent an email to Daniel, who was on assignment in Karachi, Pakistan. “I said, ‘Danny, this is a dream that I had. Please humor me and answer this email immediately.’ He never did,” Ruth said in an interview with the USC Shoah Foundation in 2014.

We are grateful that so many of these survivors, partners, friends, and family members have entrusted us to share their stories for future generations, and for the passion and dedication they brought in support of our mission.

The USC Shoah Foundation mourns the loss of Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer, a Holocaust survivor who fled Nazi Germany without her parents at the age of 10 and went on to become a renowned and beloved sex therapist and media personality. She was 96 years old. 

In a five-hour interview with the USC Shoah Foundation, Justus Rosenberg refers to himself as a “small fry,” “a cog,” an unimportant person. And perhaps it was for this reason that for decades, the Bard College literature professor hadn’t let on—to his colleagues, to his students, and even, for a time, to his wife—that he had fought and outwitted the Nazis during World War II to save thousands from persecution.