Last Chance Testimony Collection: A Return to In-Person Interviews Planned for Spring

USC Shoah Foundation continues to record interviews with Holocaust survivors as part of the Last Chance Testimony Collection initiative, an urgent effort to give voice to survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust with the goal of educating people around the globe.

When the pandemic began and it became unsafe to conduct in-person interviews, the urgency of the initiative remained, and USC Shoah Foundation developed an innovative methodology and technology to record interviews remotely. As the restrictions of the pandemic subside, USC Shoah Foundation is beginning to plan an increasing number of in-person interviews starting in April 2022.

Survivors, liberators, and other eyewitnesses to the Holocaust who have not recorded interviews are the primary focus of the current effort. Testimonies are saved and shared through our Visual History Archive and programs worldwide. The initiative now also encompasses an effort to save Holocaust survivor testimonies that have already been recorded by communities and organizations on older media formats. These media and the stories they hold are in danger of being damaged or lost forever, so USC Shoah Foundation also works to digitally preserve and share them.

USC Shoah Foundation’s mission is to develop empathy, understanding and respect through testimony. Our Visual History Archive includes more than 55,000 video testimonies of Holocaust survivors and other witnesses to genocide across 100+ years of history. This collection is preserved and shared for remembrance, education, research and action to counter antisemitism, racism and other identity-based hate.

USC Shoah Foundation pursues academic programs and partnerships across the University of Southern California and more than 175 universities and provides educational professional development and resources through its award-winning IWitness education program reaching millions of educators and students. USC Shoah Foundation's interactive programming, research and materials are accessed in museums and universities, cited by government leaders and NGOs, and taught in classrooms around the world.

Witnesses who give testimony are provided with a link to view their interview, and families can request links to the testimony for free via sfiaccess.usc.edu. Testimonies are also shared through USC Shoah Foundation programs and resources such as the Visual History Archive and IWitness.

Learn more about how we work with survivors and families to coordinate interviews.