Note to Correspondents

United Nations Partners with University of Southern California Shoah

 

Foundation Institute to Observe International Women’s Day

 

In observance of International Women’s Day on 8 March, The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme is partnering with the University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation Institute to hold a round-table discussion in Los Angeles titled “Strength Through Adversity:  Women and Mass Violence”.

With a panel of speakers that includes women survivors from Africa and Eastern Europe, the event will demonstrate women’s capacity to overcome adversity and empower others in the face of conflict or extreme violence. 

Speakers include Kimberly Mann, Manager, The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme; Alison Dundes Renteln, Professor of Political Science and Anthropology, University of Southern California; Rose Mapendo, co-founder of Mapendo New Horizons and a survivor of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and Sabina Vajrača, Bosnian-American film director, screenwriter and producer.  Stephen D. Smith, Executive Director, Shoah Foundation Institute, will welcome participants, and special remarks will be made by Abdullah Aimaque, Consul-General of Afghanistan in Los Angeles.  Beth Meyerowitz, Vice Provost and Professor of Psychology and Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California, will moderate.

The event will be held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the University’s campus in the Davidson Conference Center, Vineyard Room.  To register, please call Judy Huang, +1 213 740 2950.

Established in 1994 by Steven Spielberg to collect and preserve the testimonies of survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust, the Shoah Foundation Institute maintains one of the largest video digital libraries in the world:  nearly 52,000 video testimonies in 32 languages and from 56 countries.

As part of the Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences at the University of Southern California, the Institute works within the University and with partners worldwide to advance scholarship and research, to provide resources and online tools for educators and to disseminate the testimonies for educational purposes.  In addition to preserving the testimonies in its archive, the Institute is working with partner organizations to expand the archive with accounts of survivors and witnesses of other genocides.  For more information, visit the Institute’s website, dornsife.usc.edu/vhi.

The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme was established by General Assembly resolution 60/7 in 2006 to further education about and remembrance of the Holocaust to help prevent future acts of genocide.  Its multifaceted programme includes online and print educational products, special events and the annual worldwide observance of the Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January.

The Holocaust Programme works closely with survivors to help ensure that their stories are heard and heeded as a warning of the consequences of anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination.  In all of its activities, the Holocaust Programme draws essential links between the underlying causes of genocide, the lessons to be learned from the Holocaust and the promotion of human rights and democratic values today.  For more information about the programme, please visit www.un.org/holocaustremembrance or write to holocaustremembrance@un.org.

Media Contacts:  Jenna Leventhal, Shoah Foundation Institute, tel.: +1 213 740 6036, e-mail:  vhi-jl@dornsife.usc.edu; or Kimberly Mann, Manager, the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme, tel.: +1 212 963 6835, e‑mail:  mann@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record