J. Michael Hagopian’s collection of 400 interviews of Armenian Genocide survivors and witnesses drew one step closer to being fully integrated into the Visual History Archive today. The Armenian Film Foundation officially handed over the digitized collection to USC Shoah Foundation, where the process of cataloguing and indexing will begin.
Armenian, Hagopian / Monday, April 21, 2014
Arshag Dickranian, Armenian Genocide survivor reflects on his decision to give his testimony.
clip, male, armenian surivor, Dickranian Arshag / Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Historical memory is dangerous. In times of crisis, its demons emerge, ugly, toxic, and potentially lethal. We saw it in Donetsk last week. Jews emerging from synagogue during Passover found themselves the target of a despicable anti-Semitic attack – new crisis, old anti-Semitism, which this time accused the Jews of acts of collaboration as far back as 1941.
Donetsk Ukraine, anti-semitism, op-eds / Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Visitors to the Auschwitz Jewish Center in Oświęcim, Poland, will view USC Shoah Foundation testimony in the center’s permanent exhibit beginning in May.
oswiecim, museum, testimony / Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Aurora Mardiganian speaks here as a survivor of the Armenian Genocide. But from 1918-1920, she was also the face of the Genocide to literally millions of Americans and to others throughout the world. Her tragic, horrific story was told through a 1918 semi-autobiographical book, Ravished Armenia, and a 1919 screen adaptation, also known as Auction of Souls. With the immediacy of a newsreel, the human side to the Genocide was brought to the screen.
clip, female, armenian survivor, Aurora Mardiganian / Wednesday, April 23, 2014
The University of Southern California has established the Center for Advanced Genocide Research to study how and why such instances of mass violence occur, and how to intervene in the cycle that can lead to them.
center for advanced genocide research, cagr, Max Nikias, Steven Spielberg / Friday, April 25, 2014
Abraham Zuckerman was saved by Oskar Schindler, when he was selected to work in Schindler’s factory. Zuckerman reflects on his decision to give his testimony and the importance of collecting survivor and eyewitness testimonies to the Holocaust.
clip, jewish survivor, Abraham Zuckerman, schindler jew, male / Friday, April 25, 2014
Marcel Lissek speaks on attending Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorations in his community and how the ceremonies have evolved over the years. In Hebrew, Holocaust Remembrance Day is called Yom HaShoah, which remembers and honors the victims of the Holocaust. It is observed by most Jewish communities on the 27th of Nissan.
clip, male, jewish survivor, yom hashoah, Marcel Lissek / Friday, April 25, 2014
Sol Blaufeld recalls the liberation of Dachau concentration camp by American forces on April 29, 1945.
clip, male, jewish survivor, dachau, Sol Blaufeld, liberation / Monday, April 28, 2014
A panel discussion and appearances by World War II Soviet veterans marked the grand opening of the Blavatnik Archive Foundation's exhibit at USC Thursday night.
Blavatnik / Monday, April 28, 2014
Syuzanna Petrosyan is a candidate for a Master's Degree in Public Diplomacy at USC's Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism. As an intern at USC Shoah Foundation for almost two years, she has worked mainly with the department of research and documentation. Syuzanna currently serves as an executive producer for Anneberg’s digital news site, Neon Tommy and is a senior editor for USC’s Public Diplomacy Magazine. Syuzanna holds a B.A. in International Studies and Economics from University of California, Irvine.
/ Tuesday, April 29, 2014
A few weeks ago I went shopping at one of my favorite bookstores in Los Angeles. However, I wasn’t picking out a few books that would sit on my metro-read shelf. I was with a few USC Shoah Foundation colleagues—picking out an entire collection of Armenian Genocide History resources for the Doheny Library. A few of my colleagues and I were tasked with picking out resources to expand the library’s collection. We were shopping for the future genocide researchers, scholars, and educators.
Armenian Genocide, op-eds / Tuesday, April 29, 2014
(28 min) Five survivors of the Sobibor death camp discuss their participation in the camp uprising of 1943.
sfc / Tuesday, April 29, 2014
The designers at Olson, an advertising and digital agency in Minneapolis, typically spend their days creating ad campaigns for clients including McDonalds, Target and General Mills. But for the last six months, a team from Olson has undertaken a project of an entirely different sort.
testimony, website / Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Kurt Herrmann describes his deportation experience and living conditions of the Riga ghetto in Latvia. 
clip, male, jewish survivor, Kurt Herrmann, riga ghetto / Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Summary: Free and open to the public, monthly Institute visits give guests a chance to explore the life stories of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides and to discover how their memories are being used to overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry. Description:
/ Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Summary: Free and open to the public, monthly Institute visits give guests a chance to explore the life stories of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides and to discover how their memories are being used to overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry. Description:
/ Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Celina Biniaz speaks on the importance of educating others to stand up to bigotry and fight intolerance. She reflects on how she has implemented those teachings in her career as an educator and also as a mother and grandmother.
clip, female, jewish survivor, celina biniaz, schindler jew / Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Celina Biniaz, Edith Umugiraneza and Sara Pol-Lim shared their stories of survival and resilience at the last Genocide Awareness Month event at USC on Tuesday, “Women of the Holocaust, Cambodia and Rwanda: Three Survivors in Conversation.”
celina biniaz, edith umugiraneza, sara pol-lim, cambodian survivor, holocaust, rwandan survivor, event / Wednesday, April 30, 2014
event / Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Just one month after IWalk launched in Czech Republic, a second resource is already being developed. The city of Brno, in the Southern Moravia region of the country, will join Prague in offering downloadable testimony clip reels of Holocaust survivor testimonies that students may watch as they visit relevant historical sites.
Czech Republic, iwalk / Thursday, May 1, 2014
Kurt Thomas was deported from his hometown of Boskovice, first to Brno, then to Terezin ghetto, then to Trawniki and the ghetto of Piaski. Kurt describes his deportation experience including the deportation center, a school, which served as the main assembly point for transports from Brno. His testimony is featured in the new Brno iWalk in Czech Reublic.
clip, male, jewish survivor, kurt thomas, Czech Republic, iwalk / Thursday, May 1, 2014
Roza Petrosyan graduated with honors from USC with Bachelor Degrees in history and social psychology, as well as a minor in Russian area studies. She interned at the USC Shoah Foundation for three years and continues to work at the Institute as a researcher. In the fall, Roza will attend USC Gould School of Law with the hopes of becoming a human rights advocate.
/ Friday, May 2, 2014
When I was a child, my grandfather often told me about the Second World War. While he sat next to me, coloring or teaching me letters of the alphabet, he would sneak in a story about his days in the Soviet army. He would tell me about his post as a commander of a marine unit and how his forces liberated an Austrian town under Nazi occupation.
Armenian Genocide, GAM, op-eds / Friday, May 2, 2014
Sol Messinger was a young boy, nearly seven, when he boarded the ship St. Louis with his family. He describes the voyage from Germany to Cuba. St. Louis was a German ship carrying Jewish refugees who were not permitted to disembark in Havana, Cuba, upon their arrival on May 27, 1939. Sol’s testimony is featured in the  IWitness activity, Voyage of the St. Louis: From Hope to Despair.
clip, jewish survivor, Sol Messinger, st louis, iwitness, male / Friday, May 2, 2014
The newest activity in IWitness provides students with an opportunity to learn about the ill-fated voyage of the MS St. Louis in 1939.
iwitness, st. louis / Friday, May 2, 2014
February 18, 2014: In our current digital landscape, information is available at a much faster speed, from a larger variety of sources, and through new mediums. This availability of resources has changed not just the way society stays informed, but the way academic subjects are both explored and taught.The discussion “Finding the Human in Digital Humanities: How Many Bytes Does it take to Get to the Center?” was moderated by Kori Street, director of education at the USC Shoah Foundation.
presentation, lecture / Friday, May 2, 2014
USC Shoah Foundation has partnered with the Center for Research on Intercultural Relations at Sacred Heart Catholic University in Italy to produce the multimedia website Giving Memory a Future: The Sinti and Roma in Italy and Around the World.
roma-sinti / Monday, May 5, 2014
USC Shoah Foundation's 2014 Yom Hashoah Scholar-in-Residence is Professor Mohammed Dajani. He will give a lecture to USC students, faculty and staff Friday, May 9. For more information, please contact Kia Hays, kiahays@usc.edu.Mohammed S. Dajani founded the Wasatia movement of moderate Islam and works as a professor of political science at al-Quds University in Jerusalem. He has also served as a visiting fellow at The Washington Institute.
/ Monday, May 5, 2014

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