Teachers gathered at Kigali Genocide Memorial for a workshop organized by the USC Shoah Foundation and Aegis Trust IWitness in Rwanda team as part of the Rwandan Peace Education Program (RPEP).

Marcel Rutagarama describes how he was nearly buried alive after being severely injured and escaped from his perpetrators during the 1994 Rwandan Tutsi Genocide.

Vicki Kessler’s students watch testimonies in IWitness to practice their French, and to enhance their study of the Holocaust and genocide.

I expected to feel an intimate and profound connection to Auschwitz after touring the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum for the first time late last month. After three consecutive days visiting and working at the museum, I was indeed moved. But the insight I was hoping for came from beyond the well-worn paths of tourists, from a source that hits close to home here at USC Shoah Foundation.

Kurt Messerschmidt is one of the most recognizable faces on IWitness, and his Information Quest allows students to learn more about his life and how he survived the Holocaust.

Shortly after triggering World War II with its 1939 invasion of Poland, Nazi Germany set about repurposing a system of immigrant barracks in the city of Oświęcim to house political prisoners. Renamed Auschwitz, the facility would become the most notorious killing factory in human history. Tracing this tragic trajectory is the 15-minute documentary “Auschwitz.”

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.

Hema Panesar has just joined the USC Shoah Foundation education team as coordinator of educational programs, bringing experience in digital education, museums and history.Panesar received her bachelor’s degree in history from UC Berkeley and master’s in museum studies from New York University. Her master’s thesis was titled “Digitize Me: Museum Educators and Their Digital Oriented Visitors,” and it focused on how museum visitors are becoming more central to the museum experience, particularly digitally and online.

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.

USC Shoah Foundation is saddened to learn of the passing of Erna Viterbi, philanthropist and longtime supporter of USC Shoah Foundation.Erna Finci Viterbi, a descendant of Sephardic Jews, was born in Sarajevo but fled Yugoslavia with her family during World War II. They were deported to the Parma region of Italy and interned in the village Gramignazzo di Sissa, but were saved from deportation to the extermination camps by the townspeople. Erna and her family were able to escape to Switzerland for the rest of the war. In 1950, they moved to California.

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.

Rosa Lamb teaches 11th and 12th grade Global Studies: Holocaust and Genocide at Lake View High School in Chicago.How do you use IWitness in your class?I used it last year to have students make an IWitness video. The students created videos used for the purpose of teaching others about a specific theme or topic of the Holocaust. What kinds of reactions do students have to watching testimony?

Kori Street, USC Shoah Foundation Director of Education, will join other education experts for a panel discussion at the Responsibility 2015 conference in New York City, which will commemorate the centennial anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

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

Adam Herceg, a Teaching with Testimony in the 21st Century graduate from Slovakia, marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day at his school on January 27 by showing testimony of a survivor his students already felt a strong connection to.

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.