USC Shoah Foundation

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USC Shoah Foundation

Do you know a Holocaust survivor with an experience to share? IWitness is the Institute’s signature educational website for teachers and their students.

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. The testimonies are preserved in the Visual History Archive, one of the largest digital collections of its kind in the world. 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. 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.

08/27/2026

“American Jews are living in the moment that we should call the high tide of American antisemitism.”

The 2026 Daniel & Marisa Klass USC Shoah Foundation , hosted by Dr. Brian Hughes, Director of the USC Shoah Foundation Countering Antisemitism Lab, brings together leading scholars and practitioners to examine contemporary antisemitism.

In Episode 3, Dr. Hughes welcomes Dr. Pamela Nadell, historian and author of “Antisemitism, an American Tradition,” who challenges the assumption that antisemitism is un-American.

By recovering overlooked incidents of discrimination and resilience, Dr. Nadell discusses the thread of American antisemitism and how it has shaped the American Jewish experience.

Watch the full episode: https://ow.ly/6vf650ZGc8G

08/26/2026

To all the dogs in our Archive, in memory or by survivors’ sides, and the enduring power of companionship.

Happy .

08/25/2026

Holocaust survivor Vladimir Zelman, born in 1935 in Kiev, Ukraine, USSR, reflects on what life was like growing up under Stalin’s rule.

On August 23, communities across Europe and North America observed , also known as the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Na**sm. The day seeks to commemorate the violence perpetrated by the twentieth century’s fascist and communist regimes.

Since its official adoption, however, Black Ribbon Day has remained the subject of ongoing historical and political debate. Read more: https://ow.ly/Qu2F50ZFnyX

08/21/2026

Last summer, USC Shoah Foundation’s Leadership Program brought students beyond the classroom for a transformational journey grounded in history, testimony, and personal connection.

Through travel to Washington, D.C. and Europe, students were encouraged to embrace and activate their own leadership platforms while learning to recognize the components and consequences of antisemitism.

Building on the impact of the 2025 program, USC Shoah Foundation expanded the initiative in 2026 with two trips: one for student-athletes and another for students in USC’s Honors Thematic Option program, where they learned about antisemitism, the Holocaust, and the role of media and public space.

Learn more about the program: https://ow.ly/1C2Y50ZCvxy

08/20/2026

Holocaust survivor Ilse Lindemeyer remembers the day she was sent from Germany to England via the Kindertransport, an initiative that transported 10,000 Jewish children to safety during World War II.

08/19/2026

in 1939, German officials ordered the registration of all babies and young children showing signs of severe mental or physical disabilities. This marked the start of the N**i “Euthanasia” Program, the systematic murder of institutionalized patients with disabilities starting in Germany and extending into annexed Austria.

Holocaust survivor Fred Rodell fled Nuremberg, Germany, as a young teenager with his mother and settled in New York. He joined the U.S .military and was recruited into the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), where he worked as a spy in London and Paris. After the war, Fred was an interrogator during the Nuremberg Trials, in which he gathered evidence against the perpetrators of the Euthanasia Program.

08/13/2026

“There’s no future without a past.”

In his USC Shoah Foundation testimony, recorded in 1997, Holocaust survivor Herschel Balter shares the importance of passing down your memories and preserving your history.

08/11/2026

“The sadness stays with me until the day I die.”

Holocaust survivor Rose Winterfeldt shares how her experiences affected her and her advice for future generations.

08/08/2026

“When the war was over, I was praying that I never should have to meet a man like you.”

Holocaust survivor Margaret Pogany recalls attending a talk by activist and fellow survivor Elie Wiesel, in which he directly confronted a Holocaust denier.

08/06/2026

Holocaust survivor Irene Weiss shares a photo that was taken of her when she and her family arrived at Auschwitz, reflecting on her initial feelings of confusion and panic as her family was separated.

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