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.

USC Shoah Foundation this week will launch a Teaching with Testimony Webinar for K-5 educators featuring the exclusive global premiere of Ruth: A Little Girl’s Big Journey, an animated short film that brings to life the remarkable childhood journey of media personality, author and Holocaust survivor Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer, known the world over as Dr. Ruth.  

Dr. Edith Eger, Auschwitz survivor and psychologist, describes the power of passing her story on to future generations.  

Founded in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, and housed at USC since 2006, USC Shoah Foundation is the caretaker of the Visual History Archive: 55,000 testimonies of Holocaust and genocide survivors and witnesses that fuels programming around the world to educators, scholars, organizations, and community members. The Visual History Archive contains countless treasured family stories, including members of the Trojan family, and during Trojan Family Weekend, we invite you to experience our work in this virtual event.

 Three women tell their stories of struggle, courage, and resilience, and share their vision for women in rebuilding societies broken by genocide. Join us for a thuought-provoking night of discussion exploring women's integral role in post-conflict development. This event is presented in honor of USC Genocide Awareness month. 

Liberation Heroes: The Last Eyewitnesses explores the journeys of Liberators and Liberation Witnesses drawing parallels between the past and present. These one-of-a-kind stories of World War II heroes serve as a compelling reminder of what is at stake as antisemitism and xenophobia have reached a new crisis level, and as a call to action to stand against hatred in all its forms.

I found as a teacher that the most challenging task when teaching about the Holocaust and genocide, is how to do it not using material that shocks the students to the point that they do not want to look at the content, study the history or listen to present day issues due to the emotional shut down that can occur.

Watch and share stories of courage, action and the importance of standing up for tolerance. Click on a video to share the link for #StrongerThanHate

Jewish survivor Harry Rosenbach shares a story about what he did with one of his most prized posessions while he was attempting to flee Germany as a refugee.

Renee shares the story of what happened when she landed in the United States for the first time - including her confusion over her young relatives' Halloween costumes.

The winner of the 2013 Student Voices Short Film competition, Cecilia De Jesus's film tells a compelling story of a young girl's journey through the use of sand animation.

100 Days to Inspire Respect Margaret Lambert describes how she experienced hate as a consequence of stories that turned people against Jews and broke human connections.

Liberator Morton Barrish talks about his reasoning for giving testimony, largely because he wanted to educate the younger generation and make the story of the Holocaust very well known.

What does home mean to you during this difficult time? Home doesn’t have to be four walls. Home is an idea, a concept, a place of being. Home can be a song, a person, a smell. It can be an action, a story, a dream for the future. Home isn’t always gentle. Sometimes it is challenging, maybe even frightening. Sometimes it is a place you want to run away from and sometimes it is a place from where you are forced to flee. Sometimes home moves with you and sometimes you never go back. Home may be the family you were born into, or it may be the one you create.

Benjamin Oudkerk says that he decided to give his testimony so that his grandchildren could hear his story, and also to share how the kindness of one family saved his life.

USC Shoah Foundation has partnered with Journeys in Film to provide, on its educational website IWitness, 11 clips of testimony from the Visual History Archive relevant to the documentary film Defiant Requiem, along with Journeys in Film’s Defiant Requiem curriculum guide.

In this series, we take a closer look at the new features and resources coming to IWitness in time for the 2017-2018 school year.

USC Shoah Foundation partner and celebrated pianist Mona Golabek is scheduled to bring her livestreamed theatrical performance and concert to students and educators in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut at two signature events later this month.

Museum celebrates grand opening.

USC Shoah Foundation mourns the December 7, 2022 passing of Tom Tugend, a Berlin-born veteran of three wars and an award-winning journalist who fled the Nazi regime just months ahead of the outbreak of World War II. He was 97. 

USC Shoah Foundation Institute releases multimedia educational resource.

Film composer James Horner died when his single-engine plane crashed near Santa Barbara on June 22. Earlier this year, the Academy Award-winner worked with USC Shoah Foundation on a movie about a Holocaust survivor. These are the recollections of producer Leslie Wilson.

 Lemyel Amirian touches on the power of courage. The Armenians of Van and the surrounding regions took extraordinary measures to defend themselves – and, like Mr. Amirian, fortunately, many survived to share their stories. 

Eva Szekely shares the incredible story of how she unexpectedly met the same Arrow Cross member who spared her from being shot into the Danube River as a child years later at a swimming competiton.

100 Days to Inspire Respect Listen to several stories of what took place in the aftermath of the February 2015 attack on the Copenhagen synagogue that was motivated by antisemitism.

Watch her full testimony Read Vladka Meed's remarkable story of resistance

At its physical core, USC Shoah Foundation is an impressive bank of computers and programs that bring the testimony of genocide survivors to people around the world. It’s a complicated and mysterious process for those who don’t have advanced degrees. But beyond the connections of wires and microchips, there is something far more mysterious and complicated going on: the human connection that takes place between people from different times, different places and different backgrounds when they engage with testimony.

Fifteen hours of interviews related to a group of World War II-era diplomats who defied official policies to save hundreds of thousands of people from the Holocaust are to be integrated into the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive.

In January 2015, I had the incredible opportunity to travel to Poland with other students from across the country for USC Shoah Foundation’s and Discovery Education’s Auschwitz: Past is Present program. We toured various sites in Warsaw and Krakow, Poland, with teachers and our friend Paula Lebovics, a survivor of the Holocaust. Each point in the trip was remarkable and extremely inspiring. However, the visit to the Auschwitz-Birkeanu Memorial Museum impacted me the most.

Another year dominated by the ongoing pandemic draws to a close. From producing animated films to conducting interviews, forging new partnerships and sharing incredible testimonies, 2021 was a year to remember. Here are some of the highlights of the work the Institute has accomplished.