The stories of musicians during the Holocaust guided Syuzanna Petrosyan and Greg Irwin through the Student Voices Short Film Contest, and the result is their winning film Play for Your Life.Petrosyan, a master’s candidate in public diplomacy, and Irwin, a senior international relations major, are both interns at the USC Shoah Foundation and members of its student organization, SFISA.

Shirin Raban was just beginning work on her thesis, a short film about Persians’ observations of Passover in Los Angeles, when she decided to take on the Student Voices Short Film Contest.Raban is a master’s candidate in visual anthropology at USC with a background in graphic design. Another contestant in the Student Voices contest, Syuzanna Petrosyan, told Raban and her anthropological media seminar classmates about Student Voices and showed them some of her own work-in-progress.

Rebecca Baugh tells the heart-wrenching story of Noemi  Ban in her entry to the Student Voices Short Film Contest.In her film, Baugh, a junior international relations global business major, includes historical footage and film clips to supplement Ban’s retelling of how she, as a teenager, took care of her younger siblings in the ghetto and finally watched her family disappear into the gas chamber.“I loved that [the USC Shoah Foundation] takes these huge historical events that we study and made them personal,” Baugh said.

As an IWitness regional consultant, Brandon Barr sees firsthand the impact testimony can have on both students and teachers.Barr teaches eighth grade reading and writing at Nightingale Elementary in Chicago, where he uses IWitness, USC Shoah Foundation’s educational website, to teach about the Holocaust. As an IWitness regional consultant, he is responsible for leading IWitness teacher training programs and introducing IWitness to schools in his area.

At 88 years old, Holocaust survivor Sonia Warshawski still has a lot left to teach us.That’s why her granddaughter, film producer/director Leah Warshawski, has begun shooting a documentary called Big Sonia to share the tenacious octogenarian’s incredible life story with the next generation.

Over 15 years after he worked as assistant international production coordinator at the Shoah Foundation, Joshua Belkind still regards the experience as one that influenced where he is today.Belkind began interning as an assistant videographer at the Shoah Foundation when he was an undergraduate film major at the University of Southern California around 1995. Over the summer, he said, he recorded 10 interviews a week. He ended up doing over 100 interviews.

After traveling to Rwanda on last summer’s problems Without Passports course, Rebecca Homan is one of the newest interns at the USC Shoah Foundation.

Andrea Szönyi is well aware of the challenges she faces introducing testimony to educators and students in Hungary, but she’s determined to overcome them.

A young girl in Israel has a new “big sister” thanks to the IWitness Video Challenge.

Heather Dune Macadam is fighting to bring the story of 999 girls to life.Macadam is currently fundraising to make a documentary film called First Transport to Auschwitz: The Story of 999 Girls. The deadline for her Kickstarter campaign is Mon., March 31; click here to make a donation.

He’s only in seventh grade, but Benjamin Newman knows that Holocaust survivors’ memories of discrimination and acts of hate are still all too relevant.

President Barack Obama recently appointed Aviva Sufian as the first Special Envoy for United States Holocaust Survivor Services. Sufian is the director of regional operations in the Administration for Community Living (ACL) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She previously served in the U.S. Social Security Administration, where she worked on a variety of issues related to both aging and disability, and the New York City Department for the Aging.

As the president of USC’s STAND chapter, the student anti-genocide coalition, Francesca Bessey is passionate about fighting against genocide. And she wants other students to be as well.