Coinciding with Inauguration Day, USC Shoah Foundation debuts an initiative developed to quell some of the divides and intolerance exacerbated by the election. The 100 Days to Inspire Respect campaign starts today, its first week focusing on hate, and the power of storytelling and testimony in stopping it.

As 2015 comes to an end our education team takes a look at the 10 IWitness activities most assigned by educators.

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.

More than 30 hours of content will be available for free through Xfinity On Demand, Xfinity TV Go app and online in conjunction with the U.S. National Days of Remembrance.

“Research With Testimonies: Featuring the Center's 2020 Lev Student Research Fellows” 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 April 14, 2021

I participated in an event in April called Survivor Voices. We were six panelists from Bosnia, Rwanda, Cambodia, two Holocaust survivors and an Armenian-American priest.

USC Shoah Foundation – the Institute for Visual History and Education (the Institute) announces a special education outreach effort to mark the theatrical release of the acclaimed documentary film No Place on Earth, a film directed by Janet Tobias, which chronicles the experiences of 38 men, women and children who survived the Holocaust in Ukraine by hiding in natural cave systems for 511 consecutive days, living underground longer than any human had ever done before.

USC Shoah Foundation and the Museum of Jewish Heritage are joining forces on July 12 to host the official New York City premiere of My Name Is Sara, a feature film based on the true story of a young girl’s survival during the Holocaust while hiding in plain sight in the Ukrainian countryside. Produced in association with USC Shoah Foundation, the film was an Official Selection at over 50 festivals internationally, taking home five Best Feature Awards. Strand Releasing will bring the movie to New York theatres on July 13, 2022 and nationwide beginning July 22, 2022.

The designers at Olson, an advertising and digital agency in Minneapolis, typically spend their days creating ad campaigns for clients including McDonalds, Target and General Mills. But for the last six months, a team from Olson has undertaken a project of an entirely different sort.

The USC Shoah Foundation Institute participated in “Conflict Resolution and Peace Research: Cambodia,” a summer undergraduate course offered through the Problems Without Passports program, where students conducted their own interviews with survivors of Cambodian Genocide.

Through a new partnership with Mona Golabek’s Hold On To Your Music Foundation, IWitness launched this activity to introduce students to the history and experience of the Kindertransport.

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.

Rare primary-source photographs that focus on the life and culture of the Armenian people before the Armenian Genocide and the resiliency among the ensuing diaspora have been integrated into USC Shoah Foundation’s award-winning IWitness educational website. The addition comes thanks to a new partnership with Project SAVE Armenian Photograph Archives, whose mission is to collect, document, preserve, and present the historic and modern photographic record of Armenians and Armenian heritage.

The day after Thanksgiving, the New York Times published an article called “In America’s Heartland, the Nazi Sympathizer Next Door,” by Richard Fausset. It profiles Tony Hovater, a 29-year-old far-right extremist and Nazi sympathizer who lives in the suburbs of Dayton, Ohio.

One student listened to the testimonies of those imprisoned at an internment camp. Another wrote about people stranded in the middle of the ocean attempting to escape the genocide in the Congo. Two others will act out a scene where two inmates of a concentration camp dream of the food they would eat if they were elsewhere. The class will read excerpts of the 10 plays at the Parkside Performance Cafe 3 p.m. Friday.

The Institute’s Sara Brown discusses the power of narrative at the 3rd Global Forum Against the Crime of Genocide held earlier this month in Armenia.

‘Dimensions in Testimony Education’ is the first version of the groundbreaking technology available for instruction in classrooms around the world. Teachers and students can ask questions that prompt real-time response from a pre-recorded video of Pinchas—engaging in virtual conversation and redefining inquiry-based education.

Member of Ukrainian Parliament, Viktor Pinchuk, has made a generous contribution to support the production of a new documentary film that will rely upon the testimonies in the Shoah Foundation archive recorded in Ukraine. Mr. Pinchuk, who initiated the project, is the founder of Interpipe Scientific and Industrial Production Group. The 18-month project also includes the creation of a study guide for students and teachers that will be based on the film.

I first learned about Helena Horowitz’s life history when I found her testimony as I searched through the archive in IWitness the Institute’s educational website featuring the testimonies of survivors and other witnesses to the Holocaust and other genocides.

When I was a child, my grandfather often told me about the Second World War. While he sat next to me, coloring or teaching me letters of the alphabet, he would sneak in a story about his days in the Soviet army. He would tell me about his post as a commander of a marine unit and how his forces liberated an Austrian town under Nazi occupation.

As a teenager, it is hard to know how I can make a difference in the world. Fourteen-year-olds don’t drive, we don’t make a lot of money, and with school, homework and extracurricular activities, we don’t have a lot of time. When my teacher, Ms. Bengels, introduced me to a challenge that was not only about bettering the community, but also a way in which I could use my passion for documentary filmmaking, I leapt at the opportunity. The IWitness Video Challenge not only allowed me to pursue my passion but also encourage me to make a difference.

Alan Rose was repeating himself. He was stuck in a particularly difficult part of his story about being deported from a labor camp to Buchenwald Concentration Camp. Josh Turnil and the guests he had invited to hear Alan’s story in Josh’s Paris living room that January 2019 evening – about 20 people of all ages tucked into sofas and folding chairs – gently helped Alan along. After Alan had finished speaking, Josh’s teenage son sat at the piano and played a slow, jazzy melody with a repeating refrain that reflected the circularity of memory.

Esther Toporek Finder discusses how second and third generation survivors embrace the message of education and remembrance in this article from PastForward Spring 2014.

The news about a group of teenagers throwing a Nazi salute at a party in Orange County is a startling reminder that knowledge of the Holocaust is fading. Here are four free online classroom-ready activities on IWitness that address the topics of antisemitism, bystanders and hatred.

USC Shoah Foundation partner and celebrated author, performer and concert pianist Mona Golabek this week brings her virtual, theatrical performance based on The Children of Willesden Lane book to 50,000 students and educators in Texas. Premiering as part of Texas Holocaust Remembrance Week, the Willesden READS performance promises to be the largest Holocaust education event ever to be held in the state. The virtual program and accompanying live events this week in Texas was made possible with the generous support of the Morton H. Meyerson Family Foundation.

I recently emailed a teacher to ask if he was willing to be featured in a profile story on the USC Shoah Foundation website about his experiences using IWitness in his classroom. I had never been introduced to him and he had not been expecting to hear from me.

Though Olga and Paula connected through testimony over a year ago, local media recently reported on their unique friendship and introduced them to the world.

Aleksan Markaryan’s crystal-clear memory of the genocide against the Armenian people in 1915 has given him the distinction of being the last survivor interviewed by the Armenian Film Foundation for its collection of Armenian Genocide survivor and witness testimonies.

Their focus is on Mexican-American youth activism of the 1930s and ‘40s, but the students in USC’s Echoes of the Mexican Voice journalism course will draw on aspects of USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive when they create their own multimedia website this semester.