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Digital interactive interviews with Holocaust survivors as new form of remembrance

In cooperation with the German Exile Archive 1933-1945 of the German National Library

Soon there will no longer be any contemporary witnesses who can tell us directly about their experiences in Nazi Germany. How will this change the way we remember National Socialism, the Holocaust and exile since 1933? Digital interactive interviews are a new form of eyewitness testimony. They open up the possibility of preserving memories and making them accessible.

The German Exile Archive 1933-1945 of the German National Library and the Stiftung Exilmuseum Berlin invite you to try out the digital interactive interview format: Visitors interview the contemporary witnesses Inge Auerbacher (born 1934) and Kurt Maier (born 1930) and thus "train" the artificial intelligence on which the software is based. In this way, they contribute to making the pre-recorded answers more and more accurate. The interviews are thus interactively preserved for later generations, as if the eyewitnesses themselves were in the room.

In close collaboration with contemporary witness Inge Auerbacher and Kurt S. Maier, the German Exile Archive 1933-1945 of the German National Library has created these two digital interactive interviews, which deal with the experiences of antisemitic persecution and exile since 1933. Visitors can enter into a dialogue with the interviews and ask Inge Auerbacher and Kurt S. Maier about their experiences: about antisemitic persecution in Nazi Germany, about deportation and imprisonment in Gurs and Theresienstadt, but also about the new beginning in exile in the USA. This is made possible by the support of artificial intelligence.

Dr Sylvia Asmus, Director of the German Exile Archive 1933-1945 in Frankfurt am Main, will present the format: How did the interviews come about, what expectations did the exile archive and the two contemporary witnesses have of the project, and what experiences did students and visitors have when interacting with the digital testimonies? After this insight, visitors are invited to interview the digital eyewitnesses themselves and get an idea of this new technology.

Further information on the project and the interviews at www.fragnach.org

Free admission
Please register by e-mail to veranstaltungen@exilmuseum.berlin

Location: Werkstatt Exilmuseum
Fasanenstr. 24, 10719 Berlin
The building is unfortunately not barrier-free.

Photo: © DNB/Anna Sophia Nübling