USC Shoah Foundation

USC Shoah Foundation Witness for the Future The testimonies are preserved in the Visual History Archive, one of the largest digital collections of its kind in the world.

USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education is dedicated to making audio-visual interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides a compelling voice for education and action. The Institute currently has more than 55,000 video testimonies, each one a unique source of insight and knowledge that offers powerful stories from history that demand to be

explored and shared. They average a little over two hours each in length and were conducted in 62 countries and 41 languages. The vast majority of the testimonies contain a complete personal history of life before, during, and after the interviewee’s firsthand experience with genocide. The Visual History Archive is digitized, fully searchable via indexed keywords, and hyperlinked to the minute. With more than 115,000 hours of testimony stored in the Archive, indexing technology is essential for enabling users to pinpoint topics of interest. Indexing allows students, teachers, professors, researchers and others around the world to retrieve entire testimonies or search for specific sections within testimonies through a set of more than 64,800 keywords and phrases, 1.86 million names, and 718,000 images. Using testimony from the Visual History Archive, the Institute has developed innovative learning tools geared toward middle and high school students and teacher training programs that optimize the use of testimony in diverse educational settings worldwide – providing an experience that takes students beyond textbooks for more impactful learning. IWitness is the Institute’s signature educational website for teachers and their students. The free site has been used by students and educators in all 50 states and over 80 countries including Poland, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Hungary, Australia and France. Stored on the IWitness platform are 2,224 full-length testimonies from the Visual History Archive. The platform’s built-in learning activities are designed around short, curated clips. IWitness learning activities enhance existing curriculum across many subject areas including social studies, English Language Arts, government, foreign language, world history, American history, and character education. The Center for Advanced Genocide Research is the research and scholarship unit of the Institute. Founded in 2014, the Center is dedicated to advancing new areas of interdisciplinary research on the Holocaust and genocide, specifically discussing the origins of genocide and how to intervene in the cycle that leads to mass violence. The Center holds international conferences and workshops and hosts fellows and scholars in residence to conduct research using the vast resources available at the University of Southern California. It distinguishes itself by focusing on interdisciplinary study organized around three themes to advance the analysis of genocide and systematic mass violence on an international scale.

We remember Wallis Annenberg, philanthropist, Ambassador for Humanity, and friend of the USC Shoah Foundation. She passe...
08/01/2025

We remember Wallis Annenberg, philanthropist, Ambassador for Humanity, and friend of the USC Shoah Foundation. She passed away on Monday at the age of 86.

In 2007, Wallis received the Ambassador for Humanity Award from the USC Shoah Foundation for her long-time support and service on our Board of Councilors. During her leadership of the Annenberg Foundation, she invested $1.5 billion into nearly 3,000 nonprofits, making a lasting impact on USC and Southern California. In 2017, she became the fourth recipient of USC’s University Medallion.

May her memory be a blessing.

08/01/2025

August 2 is International Remembrance Day of the Genocide of the Roma, which commemorates the nearly 3,000 Roma and Sinti people murdered in Auschwitz on this day in 1944.

Today, we recognize this underrepresented history by listening to one of the 407 Roma and Sinti testimonies in our Archive. Roma survivor Julia Lentini recalls her father’s confusion when N***s forced her family from Eisern, Germany, to Frankfurt under the guise of “checking their family tree”— when they arrived, they realized they would be sent to Auschwitz.

07/28/2025

After World War II, survivors of the Holocaust immigrated to new countries, fell in love, started families, forged successful careers, and built communities after experiencing unimaginable tragedy and loss. explores how survivors coped with trauma and how they eventually spoke about their experiences to their friends, family, and the world.

Irene Fainman speaks about the lasting effects of her trauma and other people’s understanding of the Holocaust.

07/25/2025

The 59,000+ testimonies in our Archive carry countless powerful lessons of resilience, bravery, and humanity. is a collection of the messages that survivors leave for the next generation.

Survivor of the Holocaust, Hedi Fried, shares why she tells her story and the importance of helping one another.

07/24/2025

“To have faith like this, in the middle of this hell…”

Survivor of the Holocaust, Ludmila Page, remembers two of her bunkmates in Auschwitz praying despite their uncertain circumstances.

Ludmila and her husband, Leopold, helped bring the story of Oskar Schindler to light. Both were among our first recorded testimonies, in 1994, when they were interviewed by fellow survivor and “Schindler’s List” producer, Branko Lustig.

Starting June 28, we hosted our third annual , a transformational travel and educational experience for student-athlete...
07/18/2025

Starting June 28, we hosted our third annual , a transformational travel and educational experience for student-athletes that empowers them to embrace their leadership platforms as they learn to recognize the components and consequences of antisemitism.

This year’s group of 22 student-athletes from USC, UCLA, the University of Oregon, and the University of Washington visited the USC Capital Campus in Washington, D.C., and Berlin, Germany, where they completed workshops and visited sites of memory to deepen their understanding of the impact of past and present antisemitism.

In Washington, D.C., the group visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the MLK and Lincoln Memorials. They engaged in powerful discussions on identity and voice, gaining a foundational definition of antisemitism, its long history, and its contemporary iteration.

The second leg of their journey took place in Berlin, where they toured the city’s Jewish Quarter, the Topography of Terror Museum, the Memorial of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, and the Berlin Olympic Park. On the final day, they joined Hillel Deutschland for Shabbat dinner. Workshop sessions explored culture, persecution, and antisemitism in Germany, equipping participants with the skills to be agents of change in their communities.

Eight decades later, a Holocaust survivor reunites with his liberator. The reunion of Holocaust survivor Andrew Roth and...
07/17/2025

Eight decades later, a Holocaust survivor reunites with his liberator.

The reunion of Holocaust survivor Andrew Roth and WWII veteran and liberator Jack Moran at the USC Shoah Foundation was recently featured in a new article by the Washington Post.

“We are at this tipping point where the history could be lost, or it could remain relevant for future generations,” said Robert Williams, chief executive officer of the USC Shoah Foundation. “I knew we were at a moment where both the liberators and the survivors were passing very quickly.”

Read more of the article: https://ow.ly/ULl450Wrwwp

07/17/2025

“We all have to be Americans.”

Survivor of the Holocaust, Georgine Hyde, shares the advice she gives to students. Her testimony was recorded by the USC Shoah Foundation in 1998.

07/15/2025

July 11 marked the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide, the largest in a series of massacres that occurred as part of the campaign of ethnic cleansing in eastern parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina during 1992-1995.

Bosnian Serb forces led by General Ratko Mladić overran the enclave of Srebrenica, a town in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina the United Nations had formally designated as a “safe area” in 1993. In the coming weeks, Bosnian Serb soldiers forcibly separated families, massacred at least 8,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) boys and men, and deported more than 25,000 women and children.

To honor this anniversary, we listen to survivors such as Emir Bektic, who recounts the day he had to flee his home and the painful goodbyes with his family.

07/14/2025

British WWII veteran Phillip Pendry shared his testimony with the USC Shoah Foundation in 2024.

In 1945, Philip Pendry enlisted in the British army, concealing his Jewish identity. He was tasked with documenting the mistreatment of Allied prisoners of war by the N***s — a role that took him to concentration camps across Poland and Germany, where he witnessed atrocities firsthand. The footage he captured was later used to prosecute German soldiers for war crimes.

07/11/2025

“AI is not neutral or impartial.”

Yesterday, Dr. Brian Hughes, Director of the USC Shoah Foundation Countering Antisemitism Laboratory, spoke on NewsNation about antisemitic and hateful remarks made by X’s AI Chatbot, Grok, and called for tech companies to more actively self-regulate.

Read more: https://ow.ly/e0oB50Wox8K

The Division of Academic Programs at the USC Shoah Foundation invites PhD candidates and early-career scholars to apply ...
07/11/2025

The Division of Academic Programs at the USC Shoah Foundation invites PhD candidates and early-career scholars to apply for its Colloquium in Holocaust Studies and Colloquium on the Holocaust in the Balkans for the 2025-2026 academic year. Both colloquiums will accept 10 applicants who will receive access to the USC Shoah Foundation’s Archive of more than 59,000 testimonies and meet monthly with other scholars to discuss their research.

Colloquium in Holocaust Studies: We welcome applications from scholars in any discipline whose research explores the histories and legacies of the Holocaust.
Apply: https://ow.ly/Nhv950WnktI

Colloquium on the Holocaust in the Balkans: We welcome applications from scholars in any discipline whose research explores the histories and legacies of the Holocaust in this region.
Apply: https://ow.ly/o7HM50WnktJ

Applications are due August 15, 2025.

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Dedicated to making audiovisual interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides a compelling voice for education and action.