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Selena Beniaz, who at 93 was the youngest of the 1,200 people saved by Oskar Schindler in 1944, slowly made her way to the podium as the hall quieted. With her presence, the audience of about 265 who gathered Monday on the USC campus were eager to watch living history unfold on stage, no doubt with memories of friends and family lost during World War II fresh in their minds. The audience included 30 Holocaust survivors.

“Oscar Schindler saved my life by adding my name and my father’s name to the list of workers to be protected from Nazi deportation,” Biniaz said of the German businessman whose incredible story of saving Jews during World War II was documented in Steven Spielberg’s famous 1993 film “Schindler’s List.”

Benyaz was on hand at USC’s Town and Dress Ballroom to present Spielberg, the Oscar-winning director and founder of the Shoah Foundation, with the university’s highest honor, the USC University Medal, given to the celebrated director for his work on behalf of Holocaust survivors. whose stories have been documented over the past 30 years by the Holocaust Foundation.

Benyaz is one of 56,000 people whose stories have been immortalized by the USC Shoah Foundation. The foundation, founded by Steven Spielberg in 1994 in the wake of “Schindler’s List,” is dedicated to collecting and preserving the personal testimonies of Holocaust survivors.

Benyaz continued: “For many years… I did not talk about the Holocaust at all. Even my children (didn’t know) that I was a Holocaust survivor, because I didn’t want them to relive the trauma I experienced early on. That changed after I saw “Schindler’s List” in 1993. Stephen, you gave me my voice back. Thanks to your film and the Holocaust Foundation, I have been able to confront and talk about my experiences.

On Monday, Spielberg, Beniaz and Joel Citron, chairman of the USC Shoah Foundation Board of Directors, accepted the Medal of Honor from USC President Carol Folt. The kudo has been awarded only three other times in USC’s 144-year history.

“The 56,000 testimonies given by Holocaust survivors are one of the greatest contributions to humanity,” Folt said in her opening remarks. “As I look out into this wonderful room, and I know I see survivors, families and so many people dedicated to this mission and purpose of the USC Shoah Foundation, I want to say to each and every one of you how grateful we are for your selflessness to share what we know are deeply painful memories.

Spielberg took the stage, where he was greeted by several survivors who knew him through the work of the Holocaust Foundation, survivors who remember those who first inspired the founding of the foundation in 1993. During the filming of “Schindler’s List,” survivors from Poland came forward to share their experiences of the horrors of the Holocaust with the director. . These recordings planted the seeds for what later became the Holocaust Foundation’s primary mission: documenting the stories of those who lived through the Holocaust era.

“By courageously coming forward to share these stories on camera, a lasting record will be preserved for families, history, education, and for every generation to come. This has become my mission. This has become our work and this has become the Holocaust Foundation. Here we are now, 30 years later,” Spielberg said. We remain determined to give those voices every opportunity to be heard.”

Monday’s gathering had special significance for participants given the rise in anti-Semitism in the wake of the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks, which resulted in the greatest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust. Spielberg was not shy about condemning the devastating consequences of the war, which included more than 31,000 Palestinian civilian casualties, and the number is still rising.

“I am increasingly concerned that we may be doomed to repeat history, once again having to fight for the right to be Jewish. “In the face of brutality and persecution, we have always been a resilient and compassionate people who all understand the power of compassion,” Spielberg said. “We can express our outrage at the heinous acts committed by terrorists on October 7, and also condemn the killing of innocent women and children in Gaza. This makes us a unique force for good in the world, which is why we are here today to celebrate the work of the Holocaust Foundation.” , which is more important now than it was in 1994.

Citron, whose parents were Holocaust survivors, happened to be visiting his mother in Israel during the October 7 attacks. Since then, he has led the charge of collecting narratives from survivors as part of the USC Shoah Foundation’s Combating Antisemitism through the Testimony Collection, which documents experiences of post-1954 anti-Semitism.

Echoing the sentiments of his fellow speakers, he assured the audience that the work of the Holocaust Foundation would not be hampered by any acts of discrimination and violence against the Jewish community.

“I pledge to you that we will work harder than ever to educate people to become more tolerant and fight hatred in all its forms,” Citron said. “We understand and accept the enormous responsibility that survivors have entrusted to us through their testimonies and through their stories by relentlessly striving to make the world a little better every day.”