Biniaz Honored by USC

Celina Karp Biniaz ’52 was a featured speaker at a recent event at the University of Southern California that honored Holocaust survivors — like Biniaz — who had recorded their testimony with the USC Shoah Foundation. Carol Folt, president of USC, presented Biniaz and other Holocaust survivors with the prestigious University Medallion in a special ceremony on March 25.

Founder of the Shoah Foundation and filmmaker Steven Spielberg, whose film Schindler’s List won 12 Academy Awards (including Best Picture), also spoke at the event. Spielberg introduced Biniaz as a “one of the Shoah Foundation’s greatest champions and treasured friend.”

After decades of holding her experiences as a Holocaust survivor close, Biniaz recorded her story for the Shoah Foundation in 1996. She said that seeing Schindler’s List inspired her to share her story.

Biniaz told the audience, “Oskar Schindler saved my life by adding my name and that of my parents to the list of workers who were to be protected from the Nazi deportation, and 50 years later, you, Steven, recorded my life by giving me back my voice.”

She added, “We must never give in to the corrosive power of hatred and we must always remember the power each individual has to transform the lives of others.”

A book about Biniaz’ life, Saved by Schindler: The Life of Celina Karp Biniaz, by William B. Fredricks (Ice Cube Press, 2022), was published in 2022.

Previously, USC’s University Medallion has been given only three times in the history of USC, most recently in 2017. It is one of the university’s highest honors, given to individuals who have made a profound impact on the community.