Laszlo Csatary, a former Nazi commander and the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s third Most Wanted Nazi War Criminal, died August 12 while awaiting trial in Budapest. He was 98.
hungary, nazi, visual history archive / Wednesday, September 4, 2013
We continue our 10-part Echoes and Reflections series with Lesson 3: Nazi Germany.
echoes and reflections, testimony, teaching, student, iwitness / Friday, September 27, 2013
As the Allies retook control of lands that had been occupied by the Germans, they came across many Nazi camps. In some instances, the Nazis had tried to destroy all evidence of the camps, in order to conceal from the world what had happened there. In other cases, only the buildings remained as the Nazis had sent the prisoners elsewhere, often on death marches.
/ Tuesday, April 30, 2013
June 18 saw the U.S. premiere of a set of piano variations on a Polish patriotic theme composed in the Dachau concentration camp by prisoner of war Leon Kaczmarek (1903–1973). Kaczmarek’s composition was performed by 17-year-old pianist Nicholas Biniaz-Harris, winner of the National Symphony Orchestra’s 2013 Young Soloists’ Competition.
music, performance, kaczmarek, biniaz, dachau / Tuesday, June 25, 2013
“Holocaust and Ethnic Cleansing in the North Caucasus, 1942-43” Lecture by Crispin Brooks (USC Shoah Foundation) Crispin Brooks, curator of USC Shoah Foundation's Visual History Archive, will present a paper that examines the parallels of Nazi and Soviet Mass Violence in the Karachai autonomous region, 1942-43. Sponsored by Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies. USC Social Science Building, Room 250 Contact: vhi-academic@dornsife.usc.edu
/ Monday, October 14, 2013
We continue our 10-part Echoes and Reflections series with Lesson 2: Antisemitism.
echoes and reflections, iwitness, teaching / Friday, September 20, 2013
USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education was among the participating organizations at an open house for the USC-Max Kade Institute, home of the university’s German Studies and European Studies programs. The open house took place on April 12, 2013. Guests watched testimony at a computer station connected via Wi-Fi to the Foundation’s Visual History Archive, which is available at USC and more than 40 other institutions around the world.
Max Kade, german studies, Dan Leshem / Wednesday, April 17, 2013
November 8, 2012: Oscar-winning actress Jane Fonda spoke at the institute's Sexual Violence Against Women During the Holocaust Symposium, co-sponsored by Equality Now. Ms.
Jane Fonda, event, reading, performance, presentation / Monday, July 29, 2013
The Jewish Museum in Prague has teamed with USC Shoah Foundation to provide a new testimony-based lesson plan for teachers in the Czech Republic. The lesson, “International Committee of the Red Cross and Terezín,” is about the Terezín ghetto and its use as a source of Nazi propaganda in a 1944 International Red Cross report.
lesson, terezin, Theresienstadt, ghetto, education, red cross, Jewish Museum, Prague, Maurice Rossel, vha / Wednesday, August 7, 2013
A new documentary tells the story of Nicholas Winton, a British stockbroker who saved the lives of 669 Czechoslovakian children through the Kindertransport in 1939. Audiences in Los Angeles have a unique opportunity to see the film and meet Dave Lux, one of the children he saved, this Sunday.
Nicholas Winton, kindertransport, screening / Friday, August 9, 2013
Jewish Holocaust Survivor Eva Abraham Podietz went to school as usual during the Kristallnacht Pogrom only to be sent right home again. On her way home, she encountered Nazi youths. Gender: FemaleDOB: May 22, 1927City of birth: HamburgCountry of birth: GermanyGhettos: NoFled Nazi Occupied Territory: Yes  
kristallnacht, pogrom, female, clip, Eva Abraham-Podietz / Sunday, May 5, 2013
The Jewish Museum in Prague recently debuted a new exhibit dedicated to the Nazi-produced films about the Terezin (Theresienstadt) concentration camp. The Visual History Archive is also a unique resource for Terezin remembrance.
terezin, visual history archive, testimony, Prague, Czech Republic, auschwitz / Monday, October 7, 2013
USC Shoah Foundation is partnering with the American Sephardi Federation and other organizations to undertake the Sephardi and Mizrahi Jewish Testimony Collection, a new initiative to document the Sephardi and Mizrahi experience during World War II and the Holocaust.
sephardic, mizrahi, Stephen Smith, Gmach, Africa / Thursday, June 13, 2013
Wendy Lower began conducting research at the Shoah Foundation nearly ten years ago. Now, she’s helping bring other scholars to USC for the first-ever USC Shoah Foundation international conference.
/ Sunday, December 1, 2013
January 18, 2012: Resistance during the Holocaust is still mostly seen in terms of organized or armed group activities, yet this perspective overlooks individual acts of opposition. Up to now, the availability of sources for analyzing the behavior of German Jews has been limited. Historians used reports originated by the Nazi state and/or written post-war testimonies. In those sources individual acts of opposition barely emerge. However, a closer analysis of the micro level of Nazi society challenges the common image of German Jews as passive victims.
presentation / Wednesday, December 11, 2013
The 10-part Echoes and Reflections series continues with Lesson 9: Perpetrators, Collaborators and Bystanders
echoes and reflections, education, teaching, visual history archive, testimony, holocaust / Friday, November 15, 2013
Jewish Holocaust SurvivorInterview language: CzechVěra's mother was Otylie, Franz Kafka's sister. But the family never knew what a famous writer Franz would become many years after his death.
clip, subtitled, female, jewish survivor, franz kafka, writer / Friday, May 24, 2013
English and composition teacher Oriana Packer, of Brockton High School in Brockton, Mass., assigned her junior students the IWitness Video Challenge. Here, three of them share what it was like to watch testimony for the first time. (In the photo, left to right: Kweku Quansah, Lucia Ugbesia, Alexandra Eugene, Oriana Packer) When did you first learn about the Holocaust?
/ Tuesday, December 17, 2013
The 10-part Echoes and Reflections series concludes with Lesson 10: The Children.
echoes and reflections, holocaust, children, teaching, visual history archive / Thursday, November 21, 2013
Jewish Holocaust Survivor Jacob Wiener recalls being taunted by his classmates during the Kristallnacht Pogrom. Gender: MaleDOB: March 25, 1917City of birth: BremenCountry of birth: GermanyGhettos: NoWent into hiding: NoFled Nazi-occupied Territory: Yes  
kristallnacht, pogrom, male, clip, Jacob Wiener / Sunday, May 5, 2013
We continue our 10-part Echoes and Reflections series with Lesson 4: The Ghettos.
echoes and reflections, testimony, education, teaching / Friday, October 4, 2013
This video focuses on the theme of diplomats and rescue and relates some of the best-known cases of aid provided by consulates and embassies including the efforts of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Raoul Wallenberg, and Chiune Sugihara. Diplomats in countries throughout Europe helped Jews escape persecution by issuing visas and other travel paperwork that allowed Jews to flee Nazi-occupied territory. Featured in the video are the testimonies of Israel Kipen, Per Anger, and Henri Deutsch who recount their personal experiences of rescue during the Holocaust.
unesco, rescue, wallenberg, sugihara, holocaust, clip reel, clip / Friday, February 1, 2013
Jewish Holocaust Survivor Mr. Strauss remembers the observance of Shabbat in Buchenwald as a form of spiritual resistance. The prisoners continued to chant the Jewish prayers even under the threat of death.
religion, religious, observance, shabbat, shabbos, clip, male, Manfred Strauss / Sunday, May 5, 2013
Featuring testimony on Aristides de Sousa Mendes, this video focuses on the theme of diplomats and rescue and relates some of the best-known cases of aid provided by consulates and embassies including the efforts of Raoul Wallenberg, and Chiune Sugihara. Diplomats in countries throughout Europe helped Jews escape persecution by issuing visas and other travel paperwork that allowed Jews to flee Nazi-occupied territory. Featured in the video are the testimonies of Israel Kipen, Per Anger, and Henri Deutsch who recount their personal experiences of rescue during the Holocaust.
/ Thursday, July 11, 2013
The award-winning French documentarian Claude Lanzmann will present his latest film and participate in a discussion with USC Shoah Foundation executive director Stephen Smith at the USC School of Cinematic Arts Tues., Dec. 10.
claude lanzmann, documentary, screening, usc, Stephen Smith / Monday, November 25, 2013
Jewish Holocaust SurvivorInterview language: HungarianÉva explains how she survived a roundup of Jews by Hungary’s Arrow Cross party members in Budapest in winter 1944. A young Hungarian Nazi came to take Eva, but spared her at the last minute due to Eva's father's quick thinking. Years after the war, she encountered the man again, this time as a high-ranking political police officer in then-Communist Hungary.
clip, subtitled, female, jewish survivor, arrow cross, sports / Friday, May 24, 2013
Our 10-part Echoes and Reflections series continues with Lesson 6: Jewish Resistance.
echoes and reflections, genocide resistance, education, testimony, visual history archive / Friday, October 18, 2013
We continue the 10-part Echoes and Reflections series with Lesson 5: The "Final Solution."
echoes and reflections, testimony, education, concentration camp, iwitness / Friday, October 11, 2013
Yehuda Bauer, a pioneer of Holocaust studies, and Xu Xin, who introduced the subject to universities in China, will participate in a discussion on Thursday hosted by USC Shoah Foundation.
yehuda bauer, lecture / Wednesday, November 6, 2013
The Cold War began its thaw 25 years ago, then apparently melted sufficiently for us to get on with our lives without fear. Surprisingly, the slow thaw is still in progress.
russia, moscow, op-eds / Monday, December 23, 2013

Pages