Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Tuesday 19 sepTember 2017
Exhibit allows virtual ‘interviews’ with Holocaust survivors

By KAREN MATTHEWS Yiddish joke if prompted.
Associated Press Smith says that, for now, the
NEW YORK (AP) — What virtual Gutter is better at an-
was it like in a Nazi concen- swering questions than the
tration camp? How did you virtual Schloss because his
survive? How has it affect- database contains 20,000
ed your life since? questions to her 9,000. But
Technology is allowing peo- she says the virtual Schloss
ple to ask these questions will likely improve when
and many more in virtual asked more questions.
interviews with actual Ho- Smith said the material
locaust survivors, preparing could eventually be pre-
for a day when the estimat- sented in a variety of for-
ed 100,000 Jews remaining mats including holographic
from camps, ghettos or hid- technologies still in devel-
ing under Nazi occupation opment.
are no longer alive to give “The vision was to ultimately
the accounts themselves. have a classroom of kids or
An exhibit at the Museum one child or one adult ac-
of Jewish Heritage in New tually in a room and sitting
York City called “New Di- across from a Holocaust
mensions in Testimony” uses survivor and I wanted them
hours of recorded high- to feel as if it was as real
definition video and lan- In this Friday Sept. 15, 2017, photo, Josephine Mairzadeh, right, use a microphone to pose a as possible,” she said. Bar-
question to a virtual presentation of Holocaust survivor Eva Schloss, left, featured in a testimonial
guage-recognition tech- interactive installation called “New Dimensions in Testimony” at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, bara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett,
nology to create just that in New York. chief curator of POLIN Mu-
kind of “interview” with Eva Associated Press seum of the History of Polish
Schloss, Anne Frank’s step- conceived in 2009, such ex- “Eva’s Story: A Survivor’s last week. He answered, Jews in Warsaw, said she
sister, and fellow survivor hibits have been put on in Tale by the Stepsister of “At the moment I am re- visited the Gutter-Schloss
Pinchas Gutter. different forms at other mu- Anne Frank.” tired. I do a lot of commu- exhibit and she hopes that
“What we’ve found is that seums, using technology to
it personalizes that histo- pull up relevant responses
ry,” says concept designer to questions about life be-
Heather Smith. “You con- fore, during and after Ad-
nect with that history in olf Hitler’s murderous Third
a different way than you Reich.
would just seeing a movie Like Anne Frank, Schloss
or reading a textbook or and her family went into
hearing a lecture.” hiding in Amsterdam but
The project is a collabora- were betrayed and sent to
tion between the Steven Auschwitz. She was eventu-
Spielberg-founded Shoah ally liberated by the Russian
Foundation, which has re- Army in 1945. The 88-year-
corded nearly 52,000 in- old Schloss, whose mother
terviews with Nazi-era sur- married Frank’s father, Otto
vivors, and the Institute for Frank, in 1953, lives in Lon-

In this Friday Sept. 15, 2017 photo, Holocaust survivors Eva Schloss, left, Anne Frank’s posthumous
stepsister when her mother married Frank’s father, and fellow survivor Pinchas Gutter are displayed
as part of an exhibit at the Museum of Jewish Heritage called “New Dimensions in Testimony” in
New York City.
Associated Press

Asked about Frank, whom nity social work. I’m a can- future technological ad-
she knew as a child be- tor in my synagogue. I visit vances don’t overshadow
fore both went into hiding, people in hospitals. .... basi- the survivors themselves.
Schloss’ image says, “Anne cally I do community social “However innovative the
was really a very sophisti- work as a volunteer.” technology is, it is not at the
In this Friday Sept. 15, 2017, photo, New York Councilman Rory cated little girl.” Asked about surviving a foreground of the experi-
Lancman, left, listens to a virtual response to his question from Both Schloss and Gutter Nazi death march, he said, ence, and it shouldn’t be,”
Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter, right, featured in a testimonial sit in red chairs and speak “We marched for two and Kirshenblatt-Gimblett said.
interactive installation called “New Dimensions in Testimony” at a half weeks. And only half “What’s beautiful about
the Museum of Jewish Heritage, in New York. from large flat-screen moni-
Associated Press tors. The on-screen Gut- of us arrived at Theresien- this installation is that the
ter, who in reality is 85 and stadt. The rest were either survivors are front and cen-
Creative Technologies, don and has told her story lives in Toronto, was asked killed or died on the road.” ter, they are charismatic
both at the University of in talks to schoolchildren “What do you do for a liv- Gutter will also sing a Jew- and what they have to say
Southern California. First and in books including ing?” during a museum visit ish liturgical song or tell a is utterly compelling.”q