Charlotte Knobloch, born in Munich in 1932, survived the Holocaust disguised as a Christian child on a Bavarian farm. After the war, she reunited with her father and remained in Germany, eventually dedicating her life to combating antisemitism. The XR Experience “Inside Kristallnacht” centers on her story.  In this message to her grandchildren, Dr. Knobloch emphasized the importance of taking pride in one’s Judaism in an era of antisemitism and misinformation.

The USC Shoah Foundation partnered with the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) on the development and launch of Inside Kristallnacht, an innovative mixed-reality experience that presents audiences the events of Kristallnacht through the eyes of Holocaust survivor and activist Dr. Charlotte Knobloch.

The Division of Academic Programs at the USC Shoah Foundation invites applications for its Azrieli Research Fellowship for PhD candidates and early-career scholars during the 2025-2026 academic year.

The Division of Academic Programs at the USC Shoah Foundation invites applications for its Robert J. Katz Research Fellowship in Antisemitism Studies during the 2025-2026 academic year.

The Division of Academic Programs at the USC Shoah Foundation invites applications for its Azrieli Research Fellowship for Graduate Students during the 2025-2026 academic year. Any person who is pursuing a Master’s degree (M.A., M.Ed., MMSt., MI, or other recognized Master’s-level program) or PhD may apply.

The USC Shoah Foundation announced a partnership with the Berlin-based Kreuzberg Initiative against Anti-Semitism (KIgA), a collaboration that will increase European access to testimonies of survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides and create wide-reaching programming to counter antisemitism.

In addition to collecting and preserving video testimonies, USC Shoah Foundation produces documentaries about the Holocaust and genocide. The Institute’s documentary films have aired in 50 countries and are subtitled in 28 languages.

The largest audiovisual collection of its kind in the world, the Holocaust Collection is composed of over 54,000 WWII era testimonies of Jewish survivors, political prisoners, Sinti and Roma survivors, Jehovah's Witness survivors, survivors of eugenics policies, and gay male survivors, as well as rescuers and aid providers, liberators, and participants in war crimes trials.

In October 1942, when deportations from the Warsaw ghetto paused, more than 20 youth groups and underground units coalesced into a united front. Vladka Meed channeled her despair at losing her family into fighting the Nazis.

In a five-hour interview with the USC Shoah Foundation, Justus Rosenberg refers to himself as a “small fry,” “a cog,” an unimportant person. And perhaps it was for this reason that for decades, the Bard College literature professor hadn’t let on—to his colleagues, to his students, and even, for a time, to his wife—that he had fought and outwitted the Nazis during World War II to save thousands from persecution.

Sedda Antekelian, a member of USC Shoah Foundation’s education team, never knew her own great grandmother had recorded testimony about surviving the Armenian Genocide. Hearing her great grandmother’s voice for the first time has brought Sedda closer to family, filled in gaps about her own history, and opened even more questions.

April 7 is the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda. The day of remembrance marks the start of the 100-day genocidal campaign in which an estimated 800,000 Rwandans—mainly Tutsis and moderate Hutus—were killed by well-organized mobs of Hutu extremists. Edith Umugiraneza, a survivor of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda who now works for USC Shoah Foundation, says false information and manipulated facts helped ignite and sustain the violence, and even today threaten to distort our understanding of events.

The USC Shoah Foundation mourns the passing of Damas Gisimba, the director of a Kigali orphanage who sheltered and saved the lives of over 400 people, mostly children, during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Later in life, he headed the Gisimba Memorial Center, a charitable organization that provided after-school programs for disadvantaged children and served as a place of remembrance for victims of the genocide.

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Rachel Peacock has a B.S. in Telecommunications Production from University of Florida's College of Journalism and Communications. She has eight years of professional experience in educational video production, broadcast production, and project management. Rachel manages scheduling and production for new testimonies conducted by USC Shoah Foundation for the Holocaust and Countering Antisemitism Through Testimony (CATT) Collections.

Lindsay is the Managing Director of Echoes & Reflections, the Institute's flagship Holocaust Education program in partnership with ADL and Yad Vashem. In this role, she leads strategic planning and the ongoing programmatic and operational oversight to ensure successful reach of goals and objectives of the Partnership. Lindsay holds an MEd from the University of Vermont and a BA in History from Northwestern University. She has held a range of leadership positions in the non-profit education field for more than 25 years. Lindsay is based outside of Chicago, IL.

The standard narrative of Jews as moneylenders in medieval Europe gained prominence in the 19th and 20th centuries and persists today. How did this myth emerge as a response to modern political antisemitism? Join us on December 5 as Professor Julie Mell, author of The Myth of the Medieval Jewish Moneylender, challenges this narrative. She will explore its origins, revealing that it was not a reflection of social reality in medieval Europe but rather an outgrowth of Christian crusading and economic theology.

   

Raquel Diaz Serralta is the Learning and Development Specialist for Primary Education. She creates developmentally appropriate testimony-based educational content, delivers training, and collaborates with partners. 

Campuses and communities alike have been roiled by intensified antisemitism in the wake of the Hamas assault. The worsening environment shows little evidence of disappearing. What are its roots and what can we do to combat it?