On April 6, 1994, an aircraft carrying Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down by a surface-to-air missile as it was about to land in Kigali airport. Everyone aboard the plane was killed: Habyarimana; president of Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira; and a three-man French crew. While it remains unclear who fired the missile, the event is viewed as having ignited the 1994 Rwandan Tutsi Genocide.Live Wesige remembers hearing the news about the president’s death and describes the violence that ensued in his neighborhood the next day, April 7, 1994.

April 2, 2014:  Yannick Tona, currently a student at Texas Christian University, speaks to students in the USC Shoah Foundation Student Association of his experiences during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, which took the lives of most of his family, and of how he connected these horrors from his past to his humanitarian efforts of today. For more information on Yannick: http://www.yannicktona.com/

USC Shoah Foundation’s mission to Rwanda ends Tuesday after the delegation attended the Kwibuka20 commemoration ceremony and delved into USC Shoah Foundation’s work in education and archive-building.

Holocaust survivor Celina Biniaz, Cambodian Genocide survivor Sara Pol-Lim, and Rwandan Genocide survivor Edith Umugiraneza will speak together on a panel about women in genocide, to be moderated by USC Shoah Foundation Executive Director Stephen Smith. Syuzanna Petrosyan, a USC graduate student and third-generation descendant of Armenian Genocide survivors, will introduce the event.TCC 205 (Tutor Campus Center Office of Admissions Classroom), 6:30 – 8pm.

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.

Join the USC Armenian Student Association, SFISA, and USC Shoah Foundation as they commemorate the 1.5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide.Tommy Trojan 12-2 PM

USC Shoah Foundation’s 2014 teaching and research fellowships have been awarded to professors and students from a diverse range of disciplines, including writing, anthropology, law and history.

Walter Absil reflects on living in Vienna, Austria during the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party in the 1930’s. He also recalls on returning back to Vienna to retrieve his belongings from his family home after the war. 

Forty-nine universities and museums around the world now have full access to the Visual History Archive. The Visual History Archive's 52,000 testimonies will be available to members of the University of Vienna - faculty and students - for the purposes of teaching, studying and research.

March 6, 2014: Student Voices invites all USC graduate and undergraduate students, regardless of major, to create short films that incorporate testimony from USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive.This year’s themes were: Preserving Humanity, Renewing Rwanda, and Risking Everything. All themes represent the coinciding 20th anniversaries of Schindler’s List in 2013 and the founding of the Shoah Foundation and the Rwanda Tutsi genocide in 2014.The video shows USC Shoah Foundation’s annual awards ceremony. 

All over the world, Jewish survivors of the Holocaust era are giving testimony – but not for USC Shoah Foundation’s original collection of over 51,000 Holocaust survivor testimonies. Instead, they are the first participants of the new Testimonies of North Africa and the Middle East project.

Anny Walters and her family fled Nazi controlled Europe to Egypt in the early 1940's. Walters reflects on her life in Cairo after the end of World War II. 

Morris Gordon describes in great detail how his family and community celebrated Passover in their home in Poland. The eight day festival also known as Pesach in Hebrew, commemorates the Exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt.

The first-ever winner of the IWitness Video Challenge has been chosen: Voices of Our Journey, by Ruth Hernandez.

Martin Aaron describes his experience of being liberated from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, April 1945.

April 7, 2014:  USC students in the Shoah Foundation Student Association coordinated a vigil for the 20th anniversary of the 1994  Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, structured around "Remember, Unite, Renew" -- the three themes of Kwibuka20, the international movement to commemorate 20 years since the genocide. Students read excerpts of survivor testimony, gave speeches, performed an original piano-violin duet (written by 2013 PWP Rwanda student Ambrose Soehn), and gathered for a traditional Rwandan dance performance.

In recognition of his efforts to protect human rights, his commitment to education and his work advancing opportunities for all people, President Barack Obama was presented May 7 with the Ambassador for Humanity Award by Steven Spielberg.

Rose Kohn remembers how her mother’s life was spared during the camp selection process in Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Rose and her mother, Mary were then transferred to Bergen-Belsen. Mary and her daughter survived several concentration camps together and after liberation immigrated to the United States.

Students using IWitness can now explore nearly 1,000 historical documents, photographs, publications and video testimonies to contextualize their learning about the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

Francoise Muteteli describes how her work at a Rwandan Genocide memorial is helping preserve the memory of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

Roman Weingarten describes the traditions of Passover including cleaning of the home to remove all traces of chametz, leavened products. Strict dietary laws prohibit the consumption of leavened substances for the eight days of the holiday. Also known as Pesach in Hebrew, the holiday commemorates the Exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt.

USC Shoah Foundation has embarked on a partnership with Windward School - its first partner school in Los Angeles - to introduce Windward's teachers to the methodology of teaching with testimony and to integrate testimony-based educational activities into the school's curriculum.

Ulrika Citron was born and raised in Sweden. Citron is the co-chair of USC Shoah Foundation’s Next Generation Council and active in the nonprofit world. She lives in New York City with her husband, Joel, and three children.

In April 1994, the genocide of the Rwandan Tutsis officially began, even though the persecution and killing campaign had gone on for decades. In 100 days, close to 1 million women, children and men were slaughtered and tortured to death with machetes, metal sticks and knives. The conflict gained momentum when Belgium became the colonial power in Rwanda after Germany’s defeat in World War I, and further highlighted and reinforced the distinctions between Hutus and Tutsis.