USC Preserves 63,000 Holocaust Survivor Stories for Future

Yetta Kane was just 8 years old when she fled into the Polish forest with her family, escaping Nazi soldiers with only the clothes on their backs. Now 93 and living in Long Beach, she's one of 63,000 survivors whose testimonies live on through USC Shoah Foundation, the world's largest archive of Holocaust and genocide survivor stories.

At a Holocaust Remembrance Day event this week, Kane held her granddaughter's hand and explained why she chose to share her story. "I hope viewers will learn from experiences of people like me," she said through tears, "to be inclusive, to be loving, to be kind, to shine a light when there is darkness."

The USC Shoah Foundation was established by filmmaker Steven Spielberg in 1994 after he directed "Schindler's List." He entrusted the entire audiovisual archive to USC in 2006, creating what USC President Beong-Soo Kim calls "a sacred duty and obligation."

Kane's family survived by fleeing to Russia, then enduring harsh conditions in a Siberian work camp throughout World War II. While conditions were severe, they avoided the death camps where 6 million Jews perished.

Her 1995 video testimony now serves students, scholars, and communities worldwide through the foundation's educational programs. Current USC student Jaxson Blum discovered the archive as a high school junior through the foundation's internship program for young people.

"You're more being brought into these memories from the past," Blum explained about watching testimonies. "Someone across time can share their story with you without even knowing it."

The Ripple Effect

The foundation's reach extends far beyond Holocaust education. The archive now includes testimonies from survivors of other genocides and mass atrocities from the 20th and 21st centuries, creating a living library of human resilience.

Catherine Clark, the foundation's senior director of programs, emphasized the organization's mission isn't just preservation but activation. The stories must be "brought to life and inherited by successive generations," she said.

Kane's granddaughter, Emily Kane Miller, joined her at the event as part of a panel exploring how survivor testimonies echo across generations. The discussion centered on the responsibility younger generations carry as they become the storytellers when survivors are no longer here.

USC President Kim reminded the audience that everyone who engages with these testimonies becomes a witness. "We are called, each one of us, to renounce indifference and embrace knowledge and mutual respect," he said.

Kane's motivation remains simple yet powerful: inspire others to choose kindness over cruelty, light over darkness. Her story, along with 62,999 others, ensures that message will reach people she'll never meet, in times she'll never see.

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