Leiden University Student Repository

Engel, Iris (2025)

The wave of the E-Witness: a new actor enters the stage: Witness testimonies in the digital age, 80 years after the end of the Second World War

Research master thesis | History (research) (MA)

In 2014 the Shoah Foundation created a digital project called "Dimensions in Testimony" (DiT). The DiT project simulates an interview experience with a Holocaust survivor. Six years after its creation, DiT was made publicly available via the IWitness website. In the beginning of this year (January 2025), a similar project debuted, co-created by the Museum of Jewish Heritage and the Shoah Foundation: "Survivor Stories: An Interactive Dialogue". Rather than highlighting one particular survivor, it showcases ten at the same time. This thesis, looking at these two projects, focuses on the development of the Era of the Witness over time and argues that the Shoah Foundation has moved (partially) away from its origins by focusing on the user experience, instead of the survivor's narrative.

Holocaust testimony

digital technology

AI

memory

video testimonies

Era of the Witness

Holocaust

Author

Engel, Iris

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Politics, Culture and National Identities, 1789 to the Present

Supervisors

Brackney, K. L.

ECTS Credits

30

Language

en