Access to documented experiences of Holocaust survivors and others.
/ Thursday, May 17, 2007
Students and teachers can commemorate April’s Genocide Awareness Month and the 20th anniversary of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda by completing two new IWitness activities.
iwitness, IWitness activity, rwandan genocide witness, rwandan survivor / Monday, March 31, 2014
Hungarian ethics teachers and Polish educators were introduced this spring to IWalk, USC Shoah Foundation’s educational program that combines testimony with real-life locations, and are interested in incorporating it into their teaching.  
iwalk, budapest, museum of the history of polish jews, Andrea Szőnyi / Tuesday, July 1, 2014
In just a few short months I will be holding a new born baby in my arms. The depth and complexity of emotion that I feel as this time approaches is multiplied by the experiences I have had working at USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education. New acquaintances who inquire about what I do for a living often respond by saying, “Gosh, that must be depressing.” And my response has always been the same, “Actually, it is amazing and inspiring.” And it truly is.
op-eds / Friday, July 25, 2014
Students learn about the plight of the refugees who attempted to flee Nazi Germany on the M.S. St. Louis and reflect on the world’s response to the voyage and its implications for today in Voyage of the St. Louis: From Hope to Despair.
iwitness, IWitness activity / Thursday, October 2, 2014
The Holocaust may not seem obviously relevant for Hungarian students studying for their master’s in social work, nursing and other health-related topics. But a "Teaching with Testimony in the 21st Century" graduate is using testimony to teach just such a course
Teaching with Testimony in 21st Century, hungary / Friday, January 16, 2015
Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre (MHMC) and Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre in Toronto announced an historic agreement to have their testimonies integrated in the Visual History Archive as part of the Institute’s Preserving the Legacy initiative.
canada, visual history archive / Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Due to the ongoing political and military conflicts in their country, many students in Ukraine have something in common with Holocaust survivors: They have all experienced the fear and uncertainty of war.
Donetsk Ukraine, Ukraine, anna lenchovska / Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Colin is thought to have the distinction of being the first survivor to speak on camera, just after liberation from Bergen-Belsen, which happened to be her 22nd birthday.
/ Friday, April 14, 2017
The Vienna native reflects on his 10-month tenure at the Institute, and the importance of the national reconciliation program that enables a select group of young Austrians to serve at organizations focused on Holocaust remembrance.
Austrian intern, Austrian interns, Austria, Martin Gruber / Thursday, August 23, 2018
Called “Cake For Winter,” the sketch by Amanda Andrei stems from a little-known fact that was also unknown to her: During World War II, thousands of Americans and Europeans were interned at Japanese-run concentration camps in the Philippines. It was selected to be performed by actors at the Midwest Dramatists Conference in Kansas.
DITT, playwriting class, playwright, Philippines, internment, Gisela Golombek / Thursday, October 25, 2018
Northwestern University Library has just become the first institution in Illinois to offer complete access to the nearly 52,000 videotaped testimonies of Holocaust survivors and other witnesses contained in the USC Shoah Foundation Institute's Visual History Archive.
/ Thursday, July 14, 2011
Central European University (CEU) to host an international workshop, bringing together participants engaged in Holocaust education.
/ Tuesday, May 11, 2010
The fast pace of globalization with all of its benefits is also accelerating the viral spread of hatred. Where once regional enmities brewed for centuries with sporadic outbursts of warfare and imperial powers that waxed and waned, the truly global speed and scale of ideological hatred and international conflict was not possible until recently for many practical reasons.
Hate, Tolerance, ISIS, Europe, Globalization, anti-semitism, GAM, op-eds / Monday, August 25, 2014
USC Shoah Foundation is partnering with Discovery Education, the leading provider of digital content and professional development for K-12 classrooms, on education components of Auschwitz: The Past is Present.
past is present, discovery, iwitness / Tuesday, September 16, 2014
International educators discuss testimony-based educationA conversation with Werner Dreier, Alice Herscovitch, and Karen PolakBy Kori Street
interview, kori street, alice herscovitch, karen polak, dreier, testimony, ihra, holocaust, education / Monday, August 26, 2013
USC Shoah Foundation Regional Consultant Rob Hadley traveled to Cincinnati and Kentucky to lead IWitness workshops with teachers and students. It was the first time either school had been introduced to IWitness and both were deeply moved by the experience.
iwitness / Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Resources this week engage students to think about the experiences of women in a variety of contexts.
100 days to inspire respect / Friday, March 3, 2017
Executive Director of USC Shoah Foundation Dr. Stephen D. Smith will be joined by director Terry George and producer and physician Eric Esrailian onstage at UCLA’s Hammer Museum.
/ Monday, April 3, 2017
USC Shoah Foundation Chief Technology Officer Sam Gustman will give a talk at the annual American Libraries Association conference this Saturday in Chicago.
Sam Gustman, proquest, vhap / Thursday, June 22, 2017
While students across America enjoy their summer vacation, the education department at USC Shoah Foundation is busily making major new features to its award-winning IWitness educational website for educators and their students that will be ready by the time school resumes in the fall.
iwitness / Friday, June 23, 2017
While the younger students turned their attention to the themes of racism, sexism and antisemitism, the older students tried something new this year: T-shirts covered with messages of gender equality.
/ Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Over the course of three days, the Institute exhibited its recently recorded testimonies of Rohingya refugees; hosted an event in which a renowned artist painted a portrait of a Holocaust survivor before a live audience; and screened "The Girl and The Picture," the Institute’s award-winning documentary about the 1937 Nanjing Massacre.
Aspen, David Kassan, Hanna Pankowsky, The Girl and The Picture / Wednesday, August 15, 2018
Our hearts ache and our minds reel. Innocent lives have been lost at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh where a celebration of life was taking place. Now is a time to mourn those who have been wrenched away from their families at a time that should have been filled with joy. It’s a time to grieve for their families and friends who will forever struggle to understand what happened.
Pittsburgh, Squirrel Hill, Robert Bowers, antiSemitism, mass shooting / Sunday, October 28, 2018
USC Shoah Foundation Director of Strategy, Partnership and Media Andi Gitow will join a panel discussion and show selected clips of the film, Who Will Write Our History, at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7, at the Paley Center for Media in Los Angeles. Joining Gitow will be writer, director and producer Roberta Grossman; Executive Producer Nancy Spielberg; and Holocaust survivor Natalie Gold.
/ Tuesday, February 5, 2019
The 45-minute program will feature Mona Golabek, Grammy-nominated concert pianist and author of The Children of Willesden Lane. Ms. Golabek will explore key parts of her book and perform piano classics, guiding students to consider the question: What can I hold on to in my life to help me be resilient in times of change?
/ Friday, April 17, 2020
Lauren Cantillon, a PhD candidate in the Department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King’s College, London, has been awarded the 2020-2021 Robert J. Katz Research Fellowship in Genocide Studies at the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research. She will be in residence at the Center in Spring 2021 in order to conduct research for her dissertation, entitled “Remembering and Remediating Women’s Stories of Sexual Violence during the Holocaust.”
cagr / Monday, July 6, 2020
USC Shoah Foundation announced a new partnership with Ancestry® to provide free access to searchable data from nearly 50,000 Jewish Holocaust survivor testimonies that are in the Visual History Archive® (VHA). “We are grateful that Ancestry is providing access to this initial set of metadata and enhancing the discoverability of our archive and this critically important history,” said Stephen Smith, Finci-Viterbi Executive Director at USC Shoah Foundation. Here’s how it works:
/ Wednesday, August 26, 2020
7 December 2020 - 7PM EST/4PM PST/11AM AEDT+1 This program is sponsored by the Goldrich Family Foundation. Join USC Shoah Foundation and the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival for a special screening of The Tattooed Torah followed by a post-screening Q&A moderated by USC Shoah Foundation Finci-Viterbi Executive Director, Stephen Smith.
/ Tuesday, December 1, 2020
USC Shoah Foundation last week joined President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden for a screening of HBO’s new Holocaust film The Survivor—the first official showing of a film in the White House theater since the president assumed office.
/ Wednesday, May 4, 2022

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