Collections
USC is home to several unique collections that include invaluable research resources on Holocaust and genocide studies.
Holocaust and Genocide Studies Collection
The extensive Holocaust and Genocide Studies Collection at USC Doheny Memorial Library contains 30,000 primary and secondary sources, including books on almost every facet of the Holocaust and on various genocides. Within the collection there are more than 1,000 original Nazi books and pamphlets, Jewish publications, and microfilms with original documents such as Nazi newspapers. The collection also houses 300 boxes of original transcripts from the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, and the 12 trials of the Nuremberg Military Tribunals held between 1945 and 1949.
Read an article about the development of the collection here.
Feuchtwanger Memorial Library
The Feuchtwanger Memorial Library contains the private papers and the personal library of Lion Feuchtwanger (1884-1958), a prominent German Jewish writer who fled Europe during World War II and lived in Los Angeles from 1941 until his death. His widow, Marta Feuchtwanger, gave his papers, manuscripts and the library to the University of Southern California in 1987.
Special Collections at USC Doheny Library
The Special Collections at USC Doheny Library has in its archive private papers of dozens of German and Austrian emigrants, many of them Jewish, some of them artists, which were donated to or acquired by Doheny Library.
The Armenian Genocide Insurance Settlement Papers
The Armenian Genocide Insurance Settlement Papers pertain to a historic agreement reached with New York Life in 2004 that resolved more than 2,000 insurance claims against policies issued by New York Life to Armenians in the Turkish Ottoman Empire before 1915. The Center took possession of these documents in 2015. Contained in 40 boxes, the materials include mostly personal documents from the insurance claimants covered by the class-action lawsuit – birth and death certificates, policy papers, family trees, and photographs – as well as court papers. The settlement papers, donated by Vartkes Yeghiayan, constitute the Center’s first major archival donation since its launch in 2014.
Donations of Documentation to Special Collections
Please consider donating private papers, documents, photographs or films regarding the Holocaust and other genocides. The Center assesses potential donations and works with USC Libraries Special Collections to preserve private collections and make them accessible for academic research worldwide and student investigation at USC.
