Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, the nonprofit organization established by Steven Spielberg to videotape the firsthand testimonies of Holocaust survivors and witnesses and make them accessible for educational purposes, is co-sponsoring legislation that will be introduced into the California State Assembly today.

Broken Silence, a “CINEMAX Reel Life” series of five documentary films by distinguished international directors, will debut on CINEMAX on five consecutive nights next April 15-19. This unique event is presented by Steven Spielberg and Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation and produced by Academy Award Winning documentary filmmaker James Moll (the Oscar-winning HBO documentary “The Last Days”), and will debut in conjunction with Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom Hashoah.

Today Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, the nonprofit organization that videotapes the firsthand testimonies of Holocaust survivors and other witnesses and make them accessible for educational purposes, opened a rare collection of Sinti and Roma Holocaust survivor testimonies at the Dokumentations und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma (Documentation and Culture Centre of the German Sinti and Roma) in Heidelberg.

Today, in a ceremony held at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation,together with the Bavarian Ministry for Culture and Education, announced the distribution of the German-language educational CD-ROM, Remembering: for the Present and the Future to Bavarian secondary schools.

Today supporters of the Shoah Foundation celebrated the dedication of the new Tapper Research and Testing Center at the Foundation’s Los Angeles headquarters. The dedication of the Center, named for benefactor Albert M. Tapper, marks a major milestone for the Foundation, making the rich resources in the Shoah Foundation archive available to students, educators and scholars.

USC Professor of History Wolf Gruner directs USC Dornsife Center for Advance Genocide Research and sets its research agenda. Gruner also holds the Shapell- Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies at the university. An internationally recognized expert on genocide, Gruner has published 10 books and numerous articles on the Holocaust in Europe as well as on mass violence against indigenous people in Latin America.        

Polish Jewish survivor Martin Becker speaks about meeting the nephew of the great mufti al-Husseini while he studied in Egypt before World War II.Becker's testimony was recorded in 1993 by Jewish Family and Children’s Services’ (JFCS) Holocaust Center in San Francisco.

There is a current controversy about the allegation that the great mufti of Jerusalem instigated the final solution of the Nazis. While there is no doubt that Haj Amin al-Husseini, was a virulent anti-Semite, history shows that the Final Solution was conceived and implemented by Nazis and nobody else.

Families exploring USC at Trojan Family Weekend are invited to visit the USC Shoah Foundation exhibit to learn more about the Visual History Archive.

Marika Abrams talks about her experiences speaking to students about the Holocaust.

Sonya Perl discusses the Great Famine of Ukraine in 1932-1933. She says that in the years leading up to the famine, people were so hungry that they would sometimes resort to cannibalism.

Edith talks about what she has learned about her life because of the Holocaust and how it has impacted her relationship with her children. She talks about trying to open communication with future generations and serving as a role model.

USC Shoah Foundation regional consultant Anna Lenchovska and education expert Oleksandr Voitenko introduced the participants to the multimedia teacher’s guide "Ukrainian Famine of 1932-1933: The Human Dimension of the Tragedy."

A lecture by Maximilian Strnad (University of Munich)Doheny Memorial Library, Room 240

During the month of April, as we observe commemoration days for four genocides, we take the opportunity to raise awareness about all genocides, including those being perpetrated today. April is an opportunity for those committed to history and remembrance to alert others to the moral and physical dangers of denying the past and of ignoring atrocities occurring in our own times. Access events, educational resources, and other opportunities to commemorate the victims of genocide.

In April 1915, the Ottoman government initiated plans to systematically destroy the Armenian population as it existed in the Ottoman empire. Their actions included (but were not limited to) forced displacement, starvation, imprisonment, and the use of the military and proxies to commit mass violence.

D. Wes Rist is an atrocity prevention professional with nearly 20 years of experience in international human rights law, transitional justice, and international criminal justice. He previously served as an Atrocity Prevention Officer in the Bureau of Conflict & Stabilization Operations (CSO) at the U.S.

Jaclyn Singer has a lifelong passion for Judaism, Israel and community-building. She holds a bachelor's degree in social science from San Diego State University and a master's in security and diplomacy from Tel Aviv University.

American Jewish Committee (AJC) and the USC Shoah Foundation announced today at AJC Global Forum their newly formed partnership to give voice to, document, and map modern-day antisemitism around the world. 

In partnership with organizations in the United States and Israel, the USC Shoah Foundation began collecting testimony from survivors of the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, just weeks after they occurred. These testimonies will be preserved and made available to the public as part of the Visual History Archive’s Countering Antisemitism Through Testimony Collection, which documents antisemitism after 1945.

The university celebrated Shapiro’s gift at an event outside Leavey Library on USC’s University Park Campus, the home of the USC Shoah Foundation. As part of the gift, the foundation’s space at the library has been renamed the Mickey Shapiro Headquarters of the USC Shoah Foundation.

Approximately 200,000 Holocaust survivors are living around the world today, most of whom are in their 80s and 90s. The world needs to hear their stories now. We have accelerated an urgent effort to capture as many testimonies as possible before the last of the remaining Holocaust survivors leave us.

In 2018, USC Shoah Foundation launched an Initiative to address requests from survivors who, for complex and often very personal reasons, could not come forward in the 1990s. Since the start of COVID, the foundation has received more than 400 requests from survivors to record their testimonies. We believe there are thousands more who want to tell their stories. 

Searching for Never Again from the USC Shoah Foundation, explores the past and present of antisemitism and hate, and how together, we can defeat it. Host Dr. Robert J. Williams, CEO at the USC Shoah Foundation and UNESCO Chair on Antisemitism and Holocaust Research, speaks with writers, thinkers, artists, political leaders, and those who have experienced hate, with stories of heartbreak and hope, while SEARCHING FOR NEVER AGAIN.

In commemoration of Pride Month, the Institute recognizes the LGBTQ+ people persecuted under the Nazis from as early as 1933 to the end of the war in 1945, some of whose stories are in the Institute’s Visual History Archive.They are stories of survival, resistance, rescue, and heartbreaking loss. Some of the witnesses were targeted by the Nazis for being gay under the German penal code, Paragraph 175. Other witnesses recall their encounters with gay men and women who provided rescue and aid at great risk to their own lives.