For the inaugural event in the Stanley D. Ginsburg USC Shoah Foundation Lecture Series, Mélanie Péron will explore the work of Hélène Berr, a volunteer at the Union Générale des Israélites de France (UGIF) who sheltered four Jewish children during the occupation of France.

Steve's passion for fighting antisemitism and educating the next generation led him to join the Board of Councilors in 1997 when the organization was in its infancy. He has remained committed to our mission, serving as Chair of the Board of Councilors from 2015 to 2019.

Holocaust survivor Clara Isaacman  recalls the cross-cultural joy of the holiday season when she was growing up in Antwerp, Belgium.

USC Shoah Foundation is pleased to announce Stephen A. Cozen as chairman of its Board of Councilors.

New York, NY (October 14, 2024) —Nearly 700 guests convened for an unforgettable evening of celebration and inspiration at the USC Shoah Foundation’s Ambassadors for Humanity Gala. This milestone event marked the institute's 30th anniversary, honoring the resilience of Holocaust survivors while emphasizing the critical importance of preserving their testimonies for future generations. 

The Division of Academic Programs at the USC Shoah Foundation invites applications for its Sandy and Steve Cozen Graduate Top-Off Fellowship for the 2025-2026/ 2026-2027 academic years.

Join us for a talk examining the strategies of concealment described in the USC Shoah Foundation testimonies of Jewish refugees who made the journey to Japan to escape Nazi persecution in the early 1940s.

We are grateful that so many of these survivors, partners, friends, and family members have entrusted us to share their stories for future generations, and for the passion and dedication they brought in support of our mission.

Join us online for a timely two-part program that brings together leading experts to examine the complex intersection of technologies, digital platforms, and antisemitism.

At a time when antisemitism is on the rise, USC Shoah Foundation’s Countering Antisemitism Through Testimony program aims to push back against its spread. The Institute has been recording video testimonies of people whose lives have been disrupted by contemporary acts of violent or virulent antisemitism, as well as experts on the matter and advocates who have made a dedicated effort to counter the hate. This video includes excerpts of testimonies from survivors and witnesses of a synagogue attack in Copenhagen that USC Shoah Foundation recorded for this new collection.

For weeks, Eva (Geiringer) Schloss and a small band of young women had been exploring the far corners of the women’s section of Auschwitz-Birkenau, alone and, for the first time in months, unwatched. It was January 1945, and Allied forces were nearing the camp. The SS had already evacuated most of the surviving inmates by way of middle-of-the-night marches in freezing temperatures. The gas chambers and crematoria had been destroyed. The SS guards had fled.

On the afternoon of January 27, 1945, the Red Army liberated Auschwitz, a complex of concentration and extermination camps. Although most of the prisoners were sent on a death march before the Soviet troops arrived, around 7,000 still remained at Auschwitz. The date of the liberation is recognized by the United Nations as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

At age 4, Morris Dancyger witnessed the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet forces. In his 2008 testimony held by the Calgary Jewish Federation and part of the USC Shoah Foundation archive, Morris recalled the moment he and his family realized Soviet troops had entered their barracks. Shortly after liberation, a Soviet military crew filmed Morris revealing his concentration camp tattoo. This historic footage later appeared in the 1945 documentary "Oswiecem" (Auschwitz), which documented evidence of Nazi crimes and atrocities.

On January 27, 1945, Allied Forces liberated the camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Each year on this anniversary, the world observes International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a solemn occasion for us all to affirm our commitment to Holocaust remembrance and education and to a world that respects and knows the histories of the victims and survivors of this terrible crime. 

Please join the USC Shoah Foundation and our partners at UCLA as we hear from Dr. Leon Saltiel who will focus on the challenges of grappling with the past and with current antisemitism.

The Following Op-Ed was published in U.S. News by the USC Shoah Foundation's Finci-Viterbi Executive Director, Robert J. Williams, Ph.D. January 27, 2025   As we commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day today and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, we find ourselves at a critical juncture in history.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Feb. 11, 2025) — The USC Shoah Foundation announced the appointment of Dr. Brian Hughes as the inaugural Director of its Countering Antisemitism Laboratory, marking a significant expansion of the institute's mission to combat hatred through research, education and action.

In a follow up to her inaugural lecture series, Mélanie Péron will discuss how she and her students at the University of Pennsylvania drew upon a wealth of different sources such as diaries and archives to reconstruct the individual stories of Jewish children and their families in occupied France before they were reduced to a typed line on a deportation list and the importance of using sources such as diaries and video testimonies to teach about the Shoah despite the inexorable disappearance of the last remaining witnesses.

Join Dr. Sarah Bunin Benor as she discusses the historical events that have led to major changes in the linguistic profile of Jewish communities around the world.

Inside a Warsaw light stage surrounded by nine cameras, prominent historian and journalist Marian Turski in late June completed the first ever Polish-language interactive biography. Conducted by USC Shoah Foundation and the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw (POLIN), Turski’s interview was a truly international collaboration involving 15 team members from Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Poland, the U.K and the U.S.

Noah joined the USC Shoah Foundation in 2021 as Associate Director of Annual Giving and began his role as Director of Development in 2024. He is responsible for content development, strategy, and general annual fund progress, as well as working with community members at an individual level to grow their engagement. Before joining the Institute’s advancement team, Noah worked in annual giving at Caltech and UCLA and graduated from the University of Michigan.

World War II liberator William McKinney describes the need for communities to come together.

Join us as Professors Michelle Lynn Kahn and Steven J. from the University of Southern California’s Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life, explore the lingering international support for Nazism post World War II.

We are saddened to learn of the passing of György Kun, who gave his testimony in October 1999 in Budapest, Hungary. His daughter, Andrea Szonyis, an educator and former colleague at the USC Shoah Foundation, authored a story in the series "Voices from the Archive” about her father.

The Education Division of the USC Shoah Foundation—The Institute for Visual History and Education invites applications for their inaugural Azrieli Teaching Fellowship for Excellence in Testimony-based Pedagogy for the 2025-2026 academic year.

Join us in person for an exclusive screening of For the Living and a discussion with the USC Shoah Foundation Senior Director of Programs, Dr. Catherine Clark, and Executive Producer of the film, Melinda Goldrich. For the Living is the story of 250 cyclists who travel to Poland and retrace the liberation path of Holocaust survivor Marcel Zielinski from Auschwitz-Birkenau to Kraków. Their 60-mile odyssey inspires an urgent examination of humanity's equally perilous journey from dehumanization to compassion.