Online Discussion | How are digital technologies shaping the future of Holocaust research?

Digital Holocaust Archives
Wednesday, 23 September, 2020

Digital Holocaust Archives | Colleagues from international and local archive projects discuss how digital technologies are shaping the future of Holocaust research.

Hosted by Digital Holocaust Memory and the Sussex Weidenfeld Institute of Jewish Studies | Thursday 1st October, 4-6pm CET

Digital technologies have played a significant role in Holocaust research archives in recent years, notably the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure and the Arolsen Archives’s International Tracing Service – two major projects.

In this web discussion, colleagues involved in both international and more localised archiving projects share their experiences and plans for working with the digital, and the role these technologies may play in shaping the future of Holocaust research.

  • How do digital technologies change what Holocaust archives can be and can do?
  • What are the challenges of digital integration or digitisation (behind-the-screens, staff skills, and at the interface for users)?
  • To what extent do digital archives enhance or limit users’ relationships with specific objects or documents?
  • To what extent do you see digital technologies as enabling new forms of democratic and networked archiving?
  • What risks and limitations do we face in going digital with archives?

*This is a free, online discussion, which will be hosted on Zoom*

You will be emailed a link to join the Zoom meeting within 24 hours of the start time if you have registered. Registration closes 10am on 30th September.

Speakers:

Dr. Karel Berkhoff is a Historian of Eastern Europe (particularly Ukraine and the Soviet Union), the Holocaust, and World War II. A Senior Researcher at the NIOD - Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences), he published Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine under Nazi Rule (2004) and Motherland in Danger: Soviet Propaganda during World War II (2012). He is scientific coordinator and co-director of the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure funded by the European Union.

Gilly Carr is Senior Lecturer and Academic Director in Archaeology at the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education. She is also a Fellow and Director of Studies in Archaeology at St Catharine’s College and a Partner of the Cambridge Heritage Research Centre. Gilly is on the UK delegation of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and on the academic advisory board of the UK Holocaust Memorial Centre. She is currently chairing the IHRA project ‘Safeguarding Sites’, which is writing best practice guidelines to safeguard Holocaust sites in Europe.

Christian Groh is Head of Archives at Arolsen Archives and involved in EHRI. He studied History, and English Language and Literature in Heidelberg before completing an MA in History and English, and History Doctorate at the same university. His dissertation focused on the organisation and practices of local police forces in postwar Germany. Before joining Arolsen Archives, he was a historian and archivist at City Archives Pforzheim, where he then moved up to acting, deputy and 2010 director.

Leah Sidebotham is the Digital Asset Manager at The Wiener Holocaust Library (partner in EHRI) where she leads the organisation in making the most of and preserving its digital assets. Most recently she had worked on the Library's new website Testifying to the Truth (launching late 2020) which aims to make the Library's invaluable collection of eyewitness testimonies gathered in the 1950s/60s accessible online. She recently completed a Masters in Digital Asset and Media Management at KCL, where her dissertation focused on the relationship between traditional archives and Holocaust-centric community heritage projects.

Miško Stanišić is co-founder and director of Terraforming, an NGO based in Novi Sad in Serbia committed to promoting and improving teaching and learning about the Holocaust and combating antisemitism, antigypsyism and other forms of xenophobia. Interested in exploring ways to engage new multipliers in education about the Holocaust, such as archivists and librarians, Miško developed the “International Library Platform for Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust” - a project awarded with Yehuda Bauer Grant by International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance IHRA. Another innovative concept is “Ester” - a series of digital graphic novels about the Holocaust based on cooperation with local archives and authentic sites. The latest project Miško is engaged with is "Holocaust, European values and local history" with aim to introduce archival pedagogy in smaler local archives, and safeguard microhistories of the Holocaust. Miško Stanišić is member of the IHRA delegation of the Republic of Serbia, and member of the IHRA Education Working Group as well as the Committee on the Genocide of the Roma.

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