Center Spotlight: Charles E. Scheidt

In this series, we feature profiles of supporters of the USC Center for Advanced Genocide Research.

In February 2025, the USC Center for Advanced Genocide Research announced that we had established several new student research opportunities with a generous gift from the Charles E. Scheidt Family Foundation. The foundation funded four new fellowships for students to contribute to advancing the fields of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and the gift restored a staff position unfunded at the Center since 2017.

“Research and education at the university level play a vital role in helping to prevent future genocides and mass atrocities, as they are essential avenues for understanding the past and raising awareness of developing threats,” Charles E. Scheidt said. “Without deliberate investment in studying the root causes of these heinous acts and exploring viable prevention strategies, we risk perpetuating the horrendous cycles of violence against groups viewed as ‘others’ at a time and place. My foundation is proud to support the establishment of these fellowships at USC, and the reinstatement of the Center’s Academic Relations and Outreach Officer position, both of which will further this important work.”

Charles (“Charlie”) Scheidt comes from a long line of German-Jewish families with roots that stretch back centuries in Germany on both his father’s and mother’s side. His father fled Frankfurt in 1933, just months after Hitler became chancellor. After establishing a new business in Paris, he married Suse Ballin. Six months before the outbreak of World War II, they fled Paris, settled in New York, and became part of a close-knit refugee community in which Charlie grew up.

After earning a B.A. cum laude from Yale, Charlie enrolled in a joint program at Columbia Law School and School of International and Public Affairs, graduating with a JD and a Master’s. His father had died suddenly the summer after his second year at Columbia, and Charlie’s career path took a turn. He stepped into his father’s business, and for over four decades, he successfully led Roland Foods, the imported specialty food business his parents had founded on arrival in the U.S.

Since the sale of the company in 2013, Charlie has become increasingly involved in issues relating to refugees, immigrants, and genocide and mass atrocity prevention. Although these causes have always been of great concern to him, he now devotes much of his time and efforts to them. Recognizing education as one of the primary avenues of awareness and prevention, Charlie’s family foundation has supported and helped develop academic programs focusing on the causes of genocides past and the prevention of future genocides.

Charlie has also spent over a decade researching his family history. The resulting family memoir entitled Inheritance; Love, Loss, and the Legacy of the Holocaust, to be published by Rutgers University Press in spring 2026, explores the histories of both his mother’s and father’s families, particularly their experiences during and after the Nazi era. It also addresses issues of intergenerational trauma, the scars left by the past, and the personal growth that can result from grappling with the family’s past and its effect on the present.