Kurt Messerschmidt describes the aftermath and fear after the Kristallnacht Pogrom - an organized pogrom against Jews in Germany and Austria that occurred on November 9–10, 1938. Kristallnacht is also known as the November Pogrom, "Night of Broken Glass," and "Crystal Night." This testimony clip is featured in the IWitness activity, Information Quest: Kurt Messerschmidt.

Students are asked to engage with primary and secondary sources and construct a short video essay on the nature of contemporary anti-Semitism.

Seventeen countries, 28 states and 122 cities later, the USC Shoah Foundation 20th Anniversary Guest Book is officially closed.

Peter Braunfeld recounts experiencing anti-Semitism as a child in Vienna after Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany.  This testimony clip is featured in the new IWitness activity, A thing of the Past? Anti-Semitism Past and Present.

USC students have until March 16, 2015 to enter this year’s Student Voices Short Film Contest.

Xia Shuqin recalls the Nanjing massacre on Dec. 13, 1937 and how she hid from Japanese soldiers during the invasion.

April's visit is canceled. For the next scheduled visit click here 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:

Three weeks ago, USC Shoah Foundation gathered in Poland to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. And just last week, staff from the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews returned the favor.

Andrzej Siemiatkowski speaks in Polish about the medical experiements and forced labor he experienced in the Auschwitz camp complex.

Rose Kaplovitz reflects on the end of WWII and liberation - featured in the IWitness activity Found Poetry – A Language Arts Lesson.

As I completed the transaction for my first foray with Airbnb for a trip to Paris with my daughter, I was pleasantly surprised by the note that popped up from Christophe, the manager, who alerted me that I could also have a ride from the airport with Karyn with whom he has an arrangement. 

Testimony can be intense, heart-wrenching, and emotional. It can include stories that are harrowing or even hopeful. And it can also be poetic.

Dachau camp liberator Paul Parks recalls experiencing racial discrimination in the United States after returning home from fighting in WWII.    

Martin Aaron speaks on trying to reconnect with any family members who had survived the Holocaust after he was liberated from Bergen-Belsen. He recalls how his search led him to family in America.

USC Shoah Foundation and its Center for Advanced Genocide Research are hosting two events this week that are free and open to the public.

After displaying testimonies from the Visual History Archive in its exhibit The Orient in Bohemia this fall, the Jewish Museum in Prague continues utilizing filmed testimony in its latest exhibit: “Shattered Hopes: Postwar Czechoslovakia as a Crossroads of Jewish Life.”

Kurt Wehle, one of the post-WWII leaders of Czech Jewry, describes the postwar climate in Prague up to the Communist putsch of 1948, when he had to escape from Czechoslovakia. This testimony clip is featured in the new exhibit, “Shattered Hopes: Postwar Czechoslovakia as a Crossroads of Jewish Life,” at the Jewish Museum in Prague.

Herbert Friedman discusses his mother’s decision to take in three Jewish refugee children from Nazi Germany. Friedman attributes his family’s decision because of their faith and his mother’s prominent role within their synagogue New Haven, Connecticut.  

Ellen Brandt recalls the implementation of the Nuremberg Laws in Berlin and her participation in a Jewish youth movement BDJJ or Bund Deutsch-Jüdischer Jugend. She also reflects how the organization helped her connect with her Jewish identity.

USC Gould School of Law Room 130Since his appointment to the ICTY in 2000, Judge Pocar has served as a Judge in a Trial Chamber, where he sat on the first case concerned with rape as a crime against humanity, and in the Appeals Chamber of the Tribunal, where he is still sitting. As a Judge of the Appeals Chamber, he is also a Judge of the Appeals Chamber for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). On appeal, he has participated in the adoption of the final judgments in several ICTY and ICTR cases, heard in both the Hague and in Arusha, Tanzania.

Auschwitz, the final destination of Jewish people from across Europe destined to be murdered as a part of the Nazi genocide of the Jews. Auschwitz, a place that housed prisoners of many religions, persuasions, minorities and nationalities, but whose evil reputation is seared onto our collective conscience because the five gas chambers at Birkenau were there for one reason only - to devour the lives of 960,000 Jews. Auschwitz, which has evolved into a universal symbol of man's inhumanity to man – and indeed it does remind us just how cruel human beings can be.

A Holocaust studies professor from the Russian State University for Humanities in Moscow has been awarded the 2015-16 Center Fellowship by USC Shoah Foundation’s Center for Advanced Genocide Research.

Otari Amaglobeli, a military surgeon with the First Ukrainian Front discusses the population of Auschwitz and the medical assistance his unit provided to prisoners upon liberation on Jan. 27, 1945.

Úryvek ze svědectví Viktora Schwarze se věnuje náboženské identitě a popisuje život jednoho ze židovských obchodníků na Vinohradech.

George Topas describes how he prayed with his tefillin (phylacteries) every morning in the camp barracks before he was sent out to forced labor. 

Úryvek ze svědectví Antonína Sternschusse na příkladu vyloučení ze školy popisuje dopad rasistického zákonodárství na české rodiny, jejichž členové byli označeni za židy.Antonín Sternschuss se narodil roku 1925 v Sušici, vyrůstal ale v Praze na Vinohradech. Byl vychováván jako český katolík. Po zavedení rasistických zákonů byl označen za židovského míšence, ke konci války byl vyloučen ze školy a internován v koncentračním táboře v Bystřici u Benešova, kde se dožil osvobození. V poválečném Československu se stal uznávanou kapacitou na poli makromolekulární chemie.

Úryvky ze svědectví Berty Zoubkové, Erny Seykorové, Pavla Stránského a Jana Klusáka obsahují vzpomínky na budovu vinohradské synagogy.

Úryvek ze svědectví Hany Reinerové obsahuje kromě jiného vzpomínku na nouzový útulek a vinohradskou synagogu za okupace.