From the Living Room to the World-Wide Web: Documenting, Uploading and Utilizing Holocaust Testimonies in the Digital Age

11-15 November 2018 I Location: Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel

We would like to invite those working in archives and those working with Holocaust Testimonies (survivor, rescuer, bystander as well as perpetrator testimonies) to submit their applications for the international EHRI seminar: From the Living Room to the World-Wide Web: Documenting, Uploading and Utilizing Holocaust Testimonies in the Digital Age to be held at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, 11-15 November 2018.

This seminar is organized within the framework of the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI) project, with the support and cooperation of the Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future”.

Throughout the world in the current age, major investments – financial and professional – are being made in digitizing and uploading vast Holocaust testimony collections. Archives and institutions are facing similar technological, ethical and logistical challenges regarding preserving and understanding the original character of the collections and safeguarding the sensitive nature of the material as it joins cyber space. The challenge of responding to the enormous expectations placed on archives and institutions for the accessibility of all materials, give rise to many questions such as the preservation of the actual testimony (oral, audio-visual or written), techniques of digitization, issues of publication rights, protecting the interviewee from cyber bullying, preparing viewers, and new methods in cataloging of digital material, and digital storage.

This seminar offers the unique opportunity for those working with Holocaust testimonies to come together and share their experience with others, to talk about how different institutions are dealing with the current challenges and to learn from each other. 

Topics that will be presented and discussed at the seminar include:

• What is a testimony?
• Changing contexts of testimony collections
• Differences between written, audio and audio visual testimonies
• Challenges of accessing evidence on the internet
• Difference between institutionally commissioned testimonies and individually produced testimonies
• Ethical issues and legal questions regarding mass exposure
• Technological issues in making evidence accessible online
• Digital storage
• Education
• Geographical diversity
• Meeting the expectations of individuals seeking information
• Interconnectivity between collections

The seminar proceedings and discussions will be conducted in English. All participants must be proficient in reading, listening, and conversing in English. Each participant will be asked to introduce themselves and their work with testimonies. In addition, we would like every participant to prepare a presentation (up to 20 minutes) that will focus on one of the topics mentioned above. Decisions regarding participation are at the sole discretion of the Members of the Seminar Committee.

Deadline for applications is 15 July 2018. Incomplete applications and late applications will not be considered.

An application packet consists of:

• A completed application form
• A curriculum vitae (maximum 2 pages)
• A description explaining your reasons for attending this seminar
• A one page description of their presentation topic
• A letter of recommendation

Please submit the application materials to: Eliot Nidam Orvieto, eliot.nidam[at]yadvashem.org.il   

Image: Hall of Names, Yad Vashem, ©Yad Vashem