USC Shoah Foundation is issuing its first-ever call for proposals for an international conference to be held next November, inspired by the 20th anniversary of Schindler’s List.

Shortly after I saw Schindler’s List for the first time, I had an argument with my father about the value of such Hollywood blockbusters for teaching people about the Holocaust. We debated the following question: If Schindler’s List was the only source of information for people about the Holocaust would it perhaps be better if they did not see it at all? That is, is Schindler’s List better than nothing if what it shows is all you know about what happened to nearly six million Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe? My dad said (or shouted) yes, but I was unconvinced.

USC Shoah Foundation's executive director and director of community relations will speak at this year's conference for child survivors of the Holocaust.

Crispin Brooks, curator of USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive, will deliver a presentation at the Teaching and Working with Holocaust Testimonies Summer 2013 Workshop, to be held July 15–19 at the University of Michigan–Flint. Geared toward high school teachers, college faculty, and graduate students, the conference focuses on information literacy and critical skills in education and research involving online Holocaust survivor video testimonies. The Visual History Archive is a special focus of the event.

Karen Jungblut, USC Shoah Foundation director of research and documentation, participated in the “Digital Testimonies on War and Trauma” conference in June. Held at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the symposium brought together scholars from all over the world to address the use and impact of digitized narrative collections in relating the horrors of warfare.