The future of Polish-Israeli relations can be driven by compassion and forgiveness, or a retreat behind walls of fossilized antisemitism, essentialist prejudice, nationalistic egotism, and fear.

The risk of the Holocaust is not that it will be forgotten, but that it will be embalmed and surrounded by monuments and used to absolve all future sins.   - Zygmunt Bauman 2018 Polish-Israeli Crisis: History, Trauma, and Politics of Cultural Memory The future of Polish-Israeli relations can be driven by compassion and forgiveness, or a retreat behind walls of fossilized antisemitism, essentialist prejudice, nationalistic egotism, and fear. 1968-2018

Call for Papers: International Conference "Memory through the Screen: Polish Cinema and WWII" October 18-19, 2018 USC Department of Slavic Language and Literature's 3rd Annual Film Conference at the University of Southern California When a film is created, it is created in a language, which is not only about words, but also the way that very language encodes our perception of the world, our understanding of it. –Andrzej Wajda  

Even absent this current era of “alternative facts” and “fake news,” the new Polish law making it a crime to point out Poland’s complicity in the Holocaust would be alarming.  But that it is occurring in today’s climate of demagoguery, heightened nationalism and ethnic tension – an unholy trio that threatens to metastasize on a global scale – is a troubling development. Poland’s effort has come under attack by Israel and stewards of Holocaust memory.

Over six days, teachers from all over Poland learned how to best integrate USC Shoah Foundation's testimonies of genocide survivors into their classroom experiences.

This summer, the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research is hosting three visiting scholars, who have traveled from across the country to conduct research in the Visual History Archive and consult with the staff and other researchers at the Center, as well as staff as across the Institute.

Lecture by Trinity College history professor Samuel Kassow lays out the unique circumstances leading to the legendary battle. The 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising will be on April 19.

The New York Times recently published a piece about the rerelease of a book that spotlighted the efforts of non-Jewish Europeans who risked their lives to protect Jews during the Holocaust. The rerelease coincides with the 30th anniversary of the book, “Rescuers.” At least three of the featured rescuers gave testimonies to USC Shoah Foundation. Here are their stories.

USC Shoah Foundation Executive Director Stephen Smith gave the keynote address at a conference with Holocaust educators located at the site of the Warsaw Ghetto. In the U.K, he attended events celebrating the launch of the Visual History Archive at the University of Oxford. USC Shoah Foundation Director of Global Outreach Karen Jungblut was also in Poland and then attended an event in Hungary to celebrate the launch of the Visual History Archive at 40 Hungarian institutions.

The young Nazi approached 13-year-old Szulem Czygielmamn as he walked on the sidewalk of Lubartowska Street in Lublin, Poland, and shoved him off the sidewalk. Szulem was lucky; Jews had died for less.

Born Nachman Aaron Elster in 1933, in Poland, Elster escaped persecution and came to the United States in June of 1947. There, he gained an education in Chicago, served in the armed forces during the Korean War, married and had children. To remain in touch with his heritage and to spread awareness about his experiences and lessons learned from the Holocaust, he served as vice president and gave regular talks at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center.

Two of the three Center Summer 2017 research fellows gathered to publicly present and discuss their research using the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive (VHA).

We are saddened to learn of the recent passing of Arkadii Vaispapir, one of few people ever to have survived the Sobibór death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland during the Holocaust. He was 96.

USC Shoah Foundation’s annual Teaching with Testimony in the 21st Century program is a one-year professional development initiative for educators that begins with a six-day seminar for educators.

"We'll Meet Again," the PBS series that featured a Holocaust survivor who came to USC Shoah Foundation in hopes of reconnecting with the family of another Holocaust survivor he met at a displaced-persons camp in the waning days of World War II is now available for streaming.

As he described in the testimony he gave to USC Shoah Foundation in 1997, it was one stroke of luck after another that allowed Herman Shine to become one of only a few hundred people to escape the Auschwitz death camp.

Through their testimonies on the Visual History Archive and The 1939 Society websites, Holocaust survivors and rescuers have inspired middle and high school students from across the nation and eight countries outside of the United States to become “Messengers of Memory,” the theme of this year’s Annual Holocaust Art and Writing Contest sponsored by Chapman University and The 1939 Society.

"New Perspectives on Kristallnacht: After 80 Years, the Nazi Pogrom in Global Comparison" 

To mark the 75th anniversary of the revolt, USC Shoah Foundation is sharing the story of the recently departed Sol Liber. One of the last living fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising until his passing last month, Liber was also among USC Shoah Foundation’s first interviewees.

Christopher R. Browning (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) 2018 Sara and Asa Shapiro Scholar in Residence “Holocaust History and Survivor Testimony: The Case of the Starachowice Factory Slave Labor Camp” March 29, 2018

Included within the course’s syllabus is the testimony of Holocaust survivor Eva Slonim, who was depicted in an iconic photo of a group of children standing behind the barbed wire at Auschwitz. Slonim composed a poem along with a group of other children while imprisoned in Auschwitz.