Senior Institute Fellow Doug Greenberg’s lecture brought to life the story of the people of Wolyn, who were slaughtered years before the most recognizable events of the Holocaust even began, yet have largely disappeared from public and scholarly memory.
Doug Greenberg, wolyn, lecture / Wednesday, March 26, 2014
The Visual History Archive enables its users to observe the history of political utilization of anti-Jewish prejudice since the beginning of the 20th century until the century's end. Teaching about the mechanisms of hatred and the real goals of the propagandists is of utmost importance especially in what used to be the Soviet Block, where the liberation from Nazi regime did not necessarily mean the end of anti-Jewish propaganda.
anti-semitism, op-eds, antiSemitism / Thursday, December 4, 2014
Visitors to the Auschwitz Jewish Center in Oświęcim, Poland, will view USC Shoah Foundation testimony in the center’s permanent exhibit beginning in May.
oswiecim, museum, testimony / Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Students and teachers from all over the Bay Area will attend a workshop about USC Shoah Foundation testimony and IWitness at Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS) of San Francisco’s annual Day of Learning on Sun., March 23.
/ Wednesday, March 12, 2014
The other morning I checked the BBC News website like I always do only to discover that French film director Alain Resnais had passed away at the age of ninety-one. Resnais’s films frequently explored the relationship between memory, consciousness, and the imagination in a non-linear manner and his innovative method of filmmaking won him numerous awards and prestige throughout his prolific career.
Alain Resnais, French Film, op-eds / Wednesday, March 5, 2014
I did not sleep well last night. It was not the kind of sleeplessness brought on by jet lag, stress or workload. It is best described as a kind of numbness that leaves one physically discharged, emotionally drained and deeply troubled. I just completed one the most sedentary days I’ve had in months, just sitting in a chair listening to one of the most intelligent, sophisticated, gentle, yet strong people I know tell me about his life.
poland, Sigmun Rolat, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, résistance, op-eds / Monday, February 10, 2014
After years of working with the USC Shoah Foundation and running the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival, Hilary Helstein admits she still couldn’t make sense of the Holocaust. But through art, she found her way in – and so have audiences around the world who have watched her film As Seen Through These Eyes.
/ Monday, October 13, 2014
The University of Southern California has established the Center for Advanced Genocide Research to study how and why such instances of mass violence occur, and how to intervene in the cycle that can lead to them.
center for advanced genocide research, cagr, Max Nikias, Steven Spielberg, Stephen Smith / Friday, April 25, 2014
Located northwest of Drohobycz in the Lwów voivoship in Poland (after the war Drogobych, Ukraine), the Bronica Forest was the site of massacres of the local Jewish population by the Nazis in 1942 -1943. The Jews were taken from the Drohobycz ghetto to the Bronica forest to be killed until the closing of the ghetto in June 1943. Nearly 11,000 Jews were killed on that site, including Al’fred Shraer’s mother and maternal grandfather. He speaks in Ukrainian about the history of the monument standing on the site and explains how the executions took place.
clip, male, jewish survivor, Ukraine, Al’fred Shraer, Bronica Forest Massacres / Thursday, January 30, 2014
Though her students are only 10 or 11 years old, Suzi Gantz jumped at the chance to introduce them to IWitness for USC Shoah Foundation’s first elementary classroom pilot of a new IWitness activity.Gantz’s fifth grade class at O. A. Thorp Scholastic Academy in Chicago is currently pilot-testing an unpublished IWitness Mini Quest activity: “Use Your Voice Against Prejudice.” USC Shoah Foundation staff reached out to elementary teachers in the Chicago area for any who would be interested in piloting an IWitness activity, and Gantz was selected after a brief screening process.
/ Wednesday, November 5, 2014
In MemoriumOur friend and fellow scholar Harry Reicher passed away October 27, 2014.
/ Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Sarah Miller gave testimony to the USC Shoah Foundation in 1997 about her family’s experiences hiding in France and Switzerland during the Holocaust – but she wasn’t finished telling her story just yet.
/ Monday, February 10, 2014
To honor this remarkable man and visionary scholar, the Institute gratefully re-posts his profile below. During the brief week that Harry spent with us here in Los Angeles this past July as our inaugural Rutman Teaching Fellow, he managed to touch and inspire all of our staff and friends of the Institute who worked with him and who heard his public lecture.
/ Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Born in Tunisia in 1940, Jacqueline Gmach left at the age of 18. Though her family was not directly in danger, the Nazi genocide remains deeply personal to her. She has devoted her career to educating people about its horrors as well as promoting the Jewish culture its executioners tried to obliterate. A scholar with degrees and credentials from institutions ranging from the Sorbonne in Paris to the University of Jerusalem and the University of Montreal, Gmach serves as project director for USC Shoah Foundation’s Testimonies of North Africa and the Middle East project.
Gmach, sephardi, mizrahi, collection, archive, vha / Friday, April 11, 2014
From the spring 2014 issue of PastForward: French film director and documentarian Claude Lanzmann visited USC Shoah Foundation for the first time this December, bringing with him his latest film and a simple request for the future.
claude lanzmann, pastforward / Monday, August 25, 2014
When Barbara Winton visited USC Shoah Foundation last week, it wasn’t just the testimonies that talk about how her father saved hundreds of lives during the Holocaust that impressed her – it was how these testimonies are being used to educate the next generation.
Nicholas Winton / Friday, November 28, 2014
Bella Arnett (née Froman) was born on September 6, 1917 in Warsaw, Russian Empire (now Poland). She had three brothers and two sisters. Bella’s father, Chaim,was a shoikhet, performing the ritual slaughter of animals according to Jewish tradition. He observed Ger Hasidism and was a respected member of the local community. Before the war, Bella attended a Polish school and received Jewish education at home.
clip, female, jewish survivor / Thursday, January 23, 2014
If you’ve never heard of the 1945 Soviet film The Unvanquished, don’t worry: You’re not alone, and Olga Gershenson will talk about why that is at USC Shoah Foundation’s international conference in November.
/ Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Bella Arnett (née Froman) voit le jour le 6 septembre 1917 à Varsovie (Empire russe, actuelle Pologne). Elle a trois frères et deux soeurs. Le père de Bella, Chaim, est un shoikhet - travaillant à l’abattage rituel des animaux selon la tradition juive. Il observe Ger Hasidism et est un membre respecté de la communauté locale. Avant la guerre, Bella fréquente une école polonaise et reçoit une éducation juive à la maison. Varsovie est envahie par les nazis en septembre 1939 ; une année plus tard, la famille
subtitled / Saturday, January 25, 2014
The new activity Growing Up Behind the Barbed Wire at Auschwitz is part of IWitness’s Auschwitz: The Past is Present content to commemorate the upcoming 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
auschwitz, IWitness activity, past is present / Thursday, October 16, 2014
For the third year, USC Shoah Foundation is providing testimony clips that French high school students can use in the essays and audiovisual works they submit to the National Contest on Resistance and Deportation (CNRD).
CNRD, france / Tuesday, December 9, 2014
The Information Quest about Howard Cwick introduces students to one of the American soldiers who was there for the liberation of the Buchenwald death camp.
iwitness, IWitness activity, Howard Cwick / Thursday, December 25, 2014
More than 100 Auschwitz survivors from at least 17 countries will travel to Poland to participate in the observance of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz on 27 January 2015, on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The official event will be organized by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the International Auschwitz Council. The World Jewish Congress and the USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education will be among the organizations supporting this commemorative event.
a70 / Thursday, December 11, 2014
In each testimony in the Visual History Archive, survivors have the opportunity to show photographs and family artifacts. Though this segment usually comes as a footnote of sorts at the end of each testimony, after the survivor has finished telling his or her story, it’s here that Linda Kim, a recipient of USC Shoah Foundation’s 2014 Teaching Fellowship, will focus her research this summer.
/ Monday, May 5, 2014
Living and working in the UNESCO World Heritage city of Trebic, Czech Republic, Daniela Vitaskova often teaches history by taking her students to historical sites. As one of 25 teachers chosen to travel to Poland to attend the Auschwitz: The Past is Present professional development program in January, Vitaskova will prepare herself to take her students to Auschwitz later next year.
a70, educator / Monday, December 8, 2014
When professor and scholar Katerina Kralova began researching the everyday life of Jewish communities of Central, East and South-East Europe after the Holocaust, she relied on the Visual History Archive as a crucial source for complex insights not found anywhere else.
/ Thursday, July 17, 2014
Program by Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, USC Shoah Foundation and World Jewish Congress in partnership with Discovery Education
a70 / Friday, December 5, 2014
Paul Engel est né le 4 mai 1922 à Vienne (Autriche) dans une famille juive de la classe moyenne. Il a un jeune frère, Robert. Lorsque la Première Guerre mondiale éclate en 1914, son père, Eduard, est mobilisé dans l’armée austro-hongroise. Fait prisonnier de guerre, celui-ci passe six ans en Sibérie à travailler dans une mine de charbon, avant de retrouver sa famille en 1920. À Vienne, Eduard possède une magasin de parfums en gros. Avant la guerre, Paul fréquente une école primaire et entre au lycée du 14ème district de Vienne.
/ Sunday, January 26, 2014
The Aladdin Project, founded by Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, uses the power of words to create bonds between Jewish and Muslim worlds. This article first appeared in the Spring 2014 issue of PastForward.
pastforward / Wednesday, September 17, 2014
The new multimedia Ukrainian teacher’s guide Where Do Human Rights Begin: Lessons of History and Contemporary Approaches is now available as an online resource on the USC Shoah Foundation website.
Ukraine, human rights education / Tuesday, April 1, 2014

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