USC Shoah Foundation Awards Pres. Obama With Humanitarian Distinction

The USC Shoah Foundation awarded President Barack Obama with the Ambassadors For Humanity distinction Wednesday evening at its 20th anniversary gala in Century City.

"The voices of those recorded and unrecorded, those who survived and those who perished, call upon us, implore us and challenge us to turn 'never forget' to 'never again,'" said the President.

The USC Shoah Foundation collects video testimony of genocide survivors to educate people around the globe of the mass atrocities, and each year the non-profit honors an outstanding human rights activist at its gala. 

USC President C.L. Max Nikias and USC Shoah Foundation founder Steven Spielberg honored Obama with the humanitarian award in front of approximately 1,300 guests. The Shoah Foundation said Obama was chosen for his human rights work in promoting tolerance and peace and for combating bigotry. 

"The testimonies of survivors like those with us tonight also remind us that the purpose of memory is not simply to preserve the past, it is to protect the future," said President Obama.

Holocaust survivor Celina Biniaz, whose testimony is archived in Spielberg's collection, thanked Spielberg and the President for their human rights efforts. Biniaz escaped her execution by winding up on Schindler's List.  At 13, she was the youngest worker in Schindler's factory. 

"Oskar Schindler gave me my life, but Steven Spielberg gave me my voice," said Biniaz.

The survivor is one of nearly 52,000 genocide victims who has shared her story in the USC Shoah Foundation archives.

President Obama said it's stories like Biniaz's that make never forget and never again "immediate and intimate" messages.

"Silence is evil's greatest co-conspirator," said the President. "Every day that [survivors] have lived...[has] served as the ultimate rebuke to evil."

Past recipients of the humanitarian award include George Clooney, Bill Clinton, Bob Iger and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Throughout the night, comedian Conan O'Brien added levity to the gala with jokes, and Bruce Springsteen performed "The Promised Land" and "Dancing in the Dark." 

The evening also featured Spielberg's work to bring survivors' stories into the classroom through IWitness, which connects thousands of students to the genocide testimonies.

"A human being is the most dynamic textbook," said Michelle Sadrena Clark, High Tech High North County teacher.

Clark integrates the Foundation's testimonies into her 11th grade history lessons to ensure the message of genocide prevention resonates with her students.

"Will we silently stand by or selflessly stand up?" Clark asks her students. "Through that computer screen, they connect with each survivor they meet."

In Pittsburgh, Ruth Hernandez, 14, felt a connection to those who were forced to flee from their homes during the Holocaust after listening to one survivor's testimony. 

"My dad came to America and was deported [back to El Salvador]," said Hernandez. "He says I'm lucky to be born here in America."

The high school freshman won the USC Shoah Foundation's IWitness video challenge where she used part of a survivor's testimony to link to a present-day issue. Hers focused on immigration and deportation.

At the university level, the USC Shoah Foundation announced on April 25 its new Center for Advanced Genocide Research, which will be housed in Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Science.

The program will analyze genocide and systematic mass violence on an international scale.

"What we can do and must do is make our children learn their history so they might not repeat it," said President Obama.