Salzburg University will provide local access to the USC Shoah Foundation Institute’s Visual History Archive containing almost 52,000 testimonies of Holocaust survivors and other witnesses, recorded in 56 countries and in 32 languages.This is the first site in Austria to have access to the entire Visual History Archive, and it is linked to Freie University in Berlin which also has access to the archive in its entirety.  Local Salzburg historian and former survivor interviewer, Albert Lichtblau, was instrumental in arranging access at Salzburg University.

Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust to create 65-screen video sculpture presenting USC Shoah Foundation Institute’s archive of 52,000 interviews with Holocaust survivors and other witnessesSurvivor video wall to further award-winning, nationally-recognized Museum’s role as a leader in exhibit innovation105,000 hours of interviews – representing every survivor and witness video available in the Institute’s archive—to be presented in the course of the year.

Upon the invitation of Stephen D. Smith, Executive Director of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute, Balazs Bokor, Consul General of the Republic of Hungary in Los Angeles, paid a visit to the Institute on June 15. Dr. Smith introduced the Consul General to the Institute’s work, and in particular, discussed the international educational work the Institute conducts with partners across Europe and within Hungary.

Dr. Dan Leshem, Associate Director for Academic Outreach and Research, is representing the Institute at a seminar in Lithuania on "Training teacher-trainers: European Holocaust History, Human Rights, and Tolerance Today".

On Monday, May 9, 2011, the USC Shoah Foundation Institute presented Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian L. Roberts with its highest honor, the Ambassador for Humanity award. Roberts was recognized for his visionary leadership and philanthropic work in education and technology.

More than 13,000 pre-service and in-service educators and community leaders have been trained on Echoes and Reflections, a multimedia curriculum on the Holocaust created by the the Anti-Defamation League, the USC Shoah Foundation Institute, and Yad Vashem.

The ten documentary films feature firsthand accounts from individual survivors and witnesses of their personal experiences during the Holocaust, and are all presented by the USC Shoah Foundation Institute. This is the first time these films will be offered as a complete package to a U.S. television audience.

The awards ceremony, screening, and panel discussion, made possible by Visions and Voices and HBO, were the culmination of the Student Voices short film competition which invited all USC students to use the Institute’s archive in order to shape the conversation about violence and genocide.

Steven Spielberg, Founder of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute, will present Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast Corporation, with the USC Shoah Foundation Institute’s highest honor—the Ambassadors for Humanity award. Roberts will be recognized for his visionary leadership and philanthropic works in the areas of education and technology. Spielberg will present the award at the Institute’s annual gala, taking place this year in Roberts’ hometown of Philadelphia on May 9.

In March 2011, the USC Shoah Foundation Institute and One Economy Corporation organized a two-day youth institute for high school students at the Honickman Learning Center and Comcast Technology Labs, at Project H.O.M.E., in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Seventeen students and alumni of Comcast’s and One Economy's Digital Connectors Program piloted the Institute’s new online application, IWitness. The weekend included interactive activities, presentations and discussion about the Holocaust and other genocides, and a meeting with a Holocaust survivor.

"The archive has nearly 52,000 interviews and they are as varied as human beings are....  The scope of information really mirrors the scope of differences between people."

The USC Shoah Foundation Institute expanded its teacher education efforts to SerbiaThe USC Shoah Foundation Institute expanded its teacher education efforts to Serbia on 5 February 2011, when Hungarian Regional Consultant Andrea Szőnyi presented at a training on the Methodology of Holocaust Education in Subotica.  During a session of the daylong training organized by TUUM Association for Hungarian-speaking educators, the Institute’s Hungarian Regional Consultant presented the educational use of video testimony and shared available resources in Hungarian.  She also provided an overv

In 2010, the Malach Visual History Centre at Charles University became the first site in the Czech Republic where people can access the Visual History Archive. This Friday, the university will mark the anniversary by welcoming academicians and officials from across the Czech Republic.

Video testimonies from the Institute's archive are included in two documentaries that will air on Italian television on January 27, 2011, in recognition of the International Day of Commemoration In Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust.  If you have access to the following Italian-language channels, we encourage you to watch them.

Outside the Box [Office] ScreeningFinding HillywoodFollowed by a discussion with filmmakers Eric Kabera and Ni’coel StarkUSC School of Cinematic Arts, The Ray Stark Family Theater (SCA 108)

Screening of Keepers of Memory Survivors’ Accounts of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda Followed by a Q&A session with Eric Kabera, Director Friday, March 7, Leavey Auditorium

On January 27, 2011, Anna Lenchovska, the Institute’s regional coordinator in Ukraine takes part in a round table, “Ukrainian society and Holocaust remembrance: research and educational aspects,” at the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine.

Grace develops content and strategies to promote the Institute’s programs. Grace received her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and her master’s in public relations and advertising from USC Annenberg. While studying at USC, Grace worked with USC Shoah Foundation as the Celina Biniaz Intern.

Jenna Leventhal is the Senior Director of Administration at USC Shoah Foundation. She earned a BA in history from UC Santa Barbara and an MA in public history from University of Houston, with an emphasis in Holocaust education and oral history.

Meg McDermott is the Director of Board and External Relations at the USC Shoah Foundation. In this role, she supports the Institute's Board of Councilors and partnerships with other key stakeholders. Prior to the Institute, she served as the Executive Director of Board Operations at the George Washington University. Meg previously held roles at Harvard and Tufts University, providing executive communications and special project management support for senior leadership. She holds a B.A.

View “The USC Shoah Foundation Story,” a video about the Institute's history and its current mission at the University of Southern California.

In honor of Armenian Heritage Month, join us for a conversation with grandchildren of Armenian Genocide survivors and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors.

We invite educators to engage with our testimony-based IWalk, “The Armenian Genocide Martyrs Monument: Community, Memorialization and Commemoration”, which contextualizes and humanizes the history of the Armenian Genocide and the establishment of Armenian Genocide Martyrs Monument at Bicknell Park in Montebello, California.

USC Shoah Foundation Program Specialist Svetlana Ushakova will present Geographic Perception of Auschwitz in Survivor Memoirs and Testimonies.

This event will feature a screening of Colleyville, followed by a panel discussion with the heroic survivors of the terror incident, moderated by Brian Hughes, director of the USC Shoah Foundation Countering Antisemitism Laboratory.

Professor Atina Grossmann shares exciting new work by herself and a transnational cohort of Holocaust scholars on the ambivalent, paradoxical, and varied experiences, emotions, and memories of Jews who found refuge from National Socialism and the Holocaust in India and Iran after 1933.