Despite the testimony of many witnesses to his Nazi-era crimes, Walther Becker walked out of a German courtroom a free man. The judge in the case – who was later revealed to have his own Nazi sympathies – gave little credence to survivor testimony when he handed down his 1972 verdict.

In this clip, Sara Shapiro describes her initial refusal to leave her parents after they had arranged her escape, but because of her father's insistence, she and her brother fled the ghetto.

Mireille Knoll managed to survive the Nazis during the Holocaust, but antisemitism is ancient and tenacious, and its tentacles finally caught up with her last week at her home in Paris. The 85-year-old Knoll was stabbed 11 times and burned after attackers – a neighbor and a homeless man – tried to set her apartment ablaze. The men, both in their 20s, were later arrested for a crime that is being investigated as an antisemitic attack. “She’s a Jew, she must have money,” said one attacker to the other, according to Gérard Collomb, the interior minister of France.

Jennie Burnet, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Georgia State University, gave a public lecture at the Center for Advanced Genocide Research focusing on the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influenced rescuer behavior during the 1994 genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda.

On March 15, Mélanie Péron from the French department at the University of Pennsylvania delivered a lecture on the research she conducted during her fellowship at the Center.

Kathryn Brackney, the 2017-2018 Katz Research Fellow in Genocide Studies, gave a public lecture on the research she conducted during her month in residence at the Center.

A Rohingya refugee’s account of her last days at home The Rohingya are a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority who have lived in Myanmar for hundreds of years but were effectively stripped of their citizenship by the Myanmar government (then known as Burma) and made stateless in 1982. A campaign of genocidal violence that began in August 2017 has pushed some 650,000 ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar to Bangladesh, where they live in what is now the largest refugee camp in the world.

Jamalida’s interview is among dozens of testimonies documented by USC Shoah Foundation since its arrival in November to the refugee camps in Bangladesh. A total of 11 life-history interviews with Rohingya are being added the Visual History Archive, the world’s largest repository of genocide testimony.

A presentation by Richard Hovannisian, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, UCLA; Adjunct Professor, USC, & Presidential Fellow, Chapman University Whittier Central Library 7344 Washington Avenue Whittier, CA 90602

As an interpreter at Nuremberg, Edith Coliver had a front-row seat to many historic moments, such as the testimony of Hermann Göring, creator of the Gestapo.

David Adelman serves on USC Shoah Foundation’s Board of Councilors. David is the CEO of Campus Apartments LLC, a Philadelphia company that develops and operates on- and off-campus student housing. He is also the co-founder and vice chairman of FS Investments, a nationwide distributor of alternative investment products, and vice chairman of FS Investment Corporation, a publicly registered business development company focused on investing in the debt securities of private U.S. companies.

It’s a story my grandfather never told me, something that I only heard and understood later, years after my mother recounted it. In 1943, after his first wife and children were killed, my grandfather, Sam Wasserman, participated in one of the only successful mass escapes from a Nazi extermination camp. He and hundreds of other prisoners, overwhelmed and killed several guards and escaped the Sobibor death camp in Poland. My grandfather eluded capture, joined a band of partisans fighting the Nazis, and shortly after surviving the war, met the woman who would become my grandmother.

Inge Sack de Kord describes what she and her family went through during the years of war to obtain visas to leave Europe while her father was at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Alfred Fischer remembers his voyage through different countries before arriving and settling in Chile with his wife Herta Eisenreich, also a Holocaust survivor.

Eva Klein remembers how she felt towards Chile and their citizens who welcomed her when she arrived to the country in 1947.

Paulina Bohorodzaner remembers the beginning of her working life in Chile, her adaptation to a new culture with her husband and the start of their new business.

Gustavo Seelenberger reflects on the aftermath of his experience during the war and what he went through during those years from a spiritual perspective.

In this clip from her testimony, Jamalida Begum describes how Myanmar authorities murdered her interpreter and pursued her in retaliation for her speaking with UN representatives and the press about her plight.

A public lecture by Samuel Kassow (Trinity College).

Through their testimonies on the Visual History Archive and The 1939 Society websites, Holocaust survivors and rescuers have inspired middle and high school students from across the nation and eight countries outside of the United States to become “Messengers of Memory,” the theme of this year’s Annual Holocaust Art and Writing Contest sponsored by Chapman University and The 1939 Society.

Sedda Antekelian and Manuk Avedikyan will talk about IWitness, an online education resource developed by USC Shoah Foundation, that provides access to eyewitness testimonies of the Armenian genocide and classroom activities for educators.

This is footage from Aaron Elster's testimony for the New Dimensions in Testimony project. He was one of the Institute's earliest interviewees. In this clip, Aaron Elster gives a message to future generations.

Born Nachman Aaron Elster in 1933, in Poland, Elster escaped persecution and came to the United States in June of 1947. There, he gained an education in Chicago, served in the armed forces during the Korean War, married and had children. To remain in touch with his heritage and to spread awareness about his experiences and lessons learned from the Holocaust, he served as vice president and gave regular talks at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center.

When USC Shoah Foundation’s Manuk Avedikyan was researching the Institute’s new oral-history collection of Armenian Genocide survivors, something unusual caught his eye.

On April 17, 1975, the city of Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge, triggering a four-year genocide. In commemoration, USC Shoah Foundation is spotlighting its Cambodia-based learning activities for high school students.

A handful of witnesses in the genocide trial against former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt appear in Pamela Yates’ film “500 Years,” but her cameras captured the entire proceeding. The case is considered a landmark in human rights law.

To mark the 75th anniversary of the revolt, USC Shoah Foundation is sharing the story of the recently departed Sol Liber. One of the last living fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising until his passing last month, Liber was also among USC Shoah Foundation’s first interviewees.

In this clip from her 2017 testimony, Anneliese recalls telling her grandchildren how antisemitic vandalism is now a crime. In her youth during the Nazi regime, such violence was condoned by the state.

The former goaltender for a well-known Rwandan team literally owes his life to soccer. Now he uses soccer to promote tolerance and unity. This year, he was recognized by Queen Elizabeth.