I did not sleep well last night. It was not the kind of sleeplessness brought on by jet lag, stress or workload. It is best described as a kind of numbness that leaves one physically discharged, emotionally drained and deeply troubled. I just completed one the most sedentary days I’ve had in months, just sitting in a chair listening to one of the most intelligent, sophisticated, gentle, yet strong people I know tell me about his life.

Six months after it launched, the online guest book has gathered a remarkable collection of messages from people who have been affected by testimony. All are encouraged to sign the guest book until Dec. 31, 2014.

Over the last few days I’ve overheard my grandmother and father talk endlessly about Celia Tiano, an Auschwitz survivor from Salonika, Greece, their next-door neighbor on 7th Avenue -- a quiet block in the Hyde Park area of L.A., during the 1950s and 60s. After more than 40 years, my family has reconnected with Celia -- through testimony. We were able to make this connection because of a film project I had been working on for the Student Voices Short Film Contest.

Sam tells the story of his father being taken away and ultimately sent to Auschwitz. In the process of trying to save his father, Sam's entire family was almost taken prisoner. Sam, his brother, his sister and his mother were all able to escape except his father.

Though the topic of sexual violence against women during genocide is notoriously under-researched, sexual violence against men is even more so. And that’s what USC Shoah Foundation’s 2016-2017 A.I. and Manet Schepps Foundation Teaching Fellow at Texas A&M Tommy Curry hopes to change.

In his 104 years, B. Artin Haig witnessed both the best and the worst humanity had to offer. He saw Babe Ruth play at Yankee Stadium. He photographed President Franklin Roosevelt. And he was one of the few remaining survivors of the Armenian Genocide in North America.

Michael Hagopian conducted almost all of the interviews in the Armenian Genocide Testimony collection.  After he died in December 2010, the Armenian Film Foundation received a request to interview Almas Boghosian, in Whitinsville, Massachusetts. Her granddaughter Taline had interviewed her in 2000, but her family wanted Almas to be interviewed again for this collection. I called a cameraman I knew from my previous work with the BBC and we went to Almas’ house, and met Almas’ grandson Bruce Boghosian and his wife, Laura.  

A sizzle reel in support of our virtual event Judy Batalion: The Jewish "Ghetto Girls" Who Fought the Nazis where Judy Batalion discusses her book The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos.

The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) assisted in the operation of displaced persons installations in Deggendorf, Germany, following World War II. Steffi Aghassi describes the conditions in the Deggendorf displaced persons camp and shares her incredible story as to what she personally did to change the status quo.

Searching for Never Again from the USC Shoah Foundation, explores the past and present of antisemitism and hate, and how together, we can defeat it. Host Dr. Robert J. Williams, CEO at the USC Shoah Foundation and UNESCO Chair on Antisemitism and Holocaust Research, speaks with writers, thinkers, artists, political leaders, and those who have experienced hate, with stories of heartbreak and hope, while SEARCHING FOR NEVER AGAIN.

Helen Colin's daughter Muriel explains how their family first discovered the interview her mother gave at the liberation of Bergen-Belsen. Helen says she shares her story so that future generations can learn from it. This is part of the follow-up interview Helen gave to USC Shoah Foundation in June 2016.

An estimated 43,000 students participated in 100 Days resources and activities from January 20-April 29.

During Florida’s Holocaust Education Week, 12,000 students and educators from school districts across the state experienced a livestreamed theatrical performance and concert with author and virtuoso concert pianist Mona Golabek. A recording of the broadcast can be viewed on Facebook.

Modern day Kentucky and WWII-era Austria may seem worlds apart, but the far-flung locales and distant timeframes came together last month at a series of educational workshops at the Iroquois Branch Library in south Louisville. Over the course of five weeks, a group of young children and their caregivers gathered each Saturday morning for a special educational series sponsored by the National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) and The Willesden Project, a program of USC Shoah Foundation and Hold On To Your Music Foundation, with support from the Koret Foundation. 

USC Shoah Foundation today launches its 500th IWitness activity with release of In Lisa's Footsteps, a primary level IWalk based on Mona Golabek’s acclaimed The Children of Willesden Lane books. In Lisa's Footsteps tells the story of Golabek’s mother, Lisa Jura, a young Holocaust survivor who in 1938 escaped from Vienna to London on the Kindertransport.

A public lecture organized by Holocaust Museum LA Join author Wolf Gruner as he discusses his new book, a highly original and compelling account of individual Jews who resisted Nazi persecution, challenging the traditional portrayal of Jewish passivity during the Holocaust.   RSVP here

A class of 10th graders at High Tech High North County in San Marcos, Calif., experienced IWitness for the first time in a pilot of the newest IWitness activity "1936 Olympics: Race, Politics and Civil Rights."

As a result of a new partnership between USC Shoah Foundation and Mona Golabek’s Hold On to Your Music Foundation, students are able to interact with the beloved book The Children of Willesden Lane through the IWitness educational website.

100 Days to Inspire Respect Hersch Altman, who survived the Holocaust, says that we need to learn from the past so that we can avoid repeating it. In learning about his story, he hopes that students can avoid racism and bigotry in the future and help avoid events like the Holocaust.

While more than one million Jewish children died during the Holocaust, some survived in hiding.  This video tells the story of Eva Lewin and her experience in the Kindertransport, a series of rescue efforts that helped nearly 10,000 Jewish children escape from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia to safety in Great Britain.

Approximately 200,000 Holocaust survivors are living around the world today, most of whom are in their 80s and 90s. The world needs to hear their stories now. We have accelerated an urgent effort to capture as many testimonies as possible before the last of the remaining Holocaust survivors leave us.

USC Shoah Foundation is saddened to learn of the passing of Johnny Strange, a record-holding adventurer and supporter of USC Shoah Foundation.

Ronald Tutor Campus Center (TCC) Forum, Room 450USC Shoah Foundation's 2013-2014 Institute Scholar, Dr. Douglas Greenberg, will looks at the lives of Jews before, during, and after the Holocaust in the Wolyn district of modern Ukraine.

Students can now get even more creative with their IWitness Information Quests.

In partnership with Aspen Film, the event series opens with a screening and special panel discussion of the award-winning feature film My Name Is Sara. The film is based on the true story of 13-year-old Sara Góralnik, who, after escaping a Jewish Ghetto in Poland and losing her family at the outset of the Holocaust, hides in plain sight, passing as an Orthodox Christian, and ultimately survives against all odds.

In this talk, Lauren Cantillon explores the tensions and textures of emotions present in Jewish women’s personal memory narratives of sexual(ized) violence during the Holocaust. Drawing on interviews from the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, she highlights some of the numerous Jewish women who shared their stories within the context of a Holocaust testimony interview.

Justus Rosenberg worked with Varian Fry to rescue more than 1,000 artists and intellectuals as part of the Emergency Rescue Committee. In this clip, Rosenberg expresses frustration at having to turn away many others. Read more about Justus Rosenberg

USC Shoah Foundation and USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism will present an advance screening on Jan. 15 of “Voices of Auschwitz,” a new CNN documentary telling the stories of four survivors from the Nazi German Concentration and extermination camp. The hour-long special is hosted by CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, himself the son of Holocaust survivors.

This year I focused on eyewitness testimony to the Holocaust and it changed the experience for my students and for me.

USC Shoah Foundation has added 132 testimonies to its Visual History Archive. These firsthand accounts of mass atrocities spanning more than 100 years are now available to researchers, educators, family members, and the public.