The international research project Visual History of the Holocaust has taken on the task of digitizing stocks of so-called “liberation images,” i.e., pictures taken during or shortly after the liberation of concentration and extermination camps, from a wide variety of archives and making them available online in bundled form, accompanied by an incredible wealth of contextualizing information: Where were these films and photos taken, by whom, with what intention, and by what technological means? How were they used – and how do they resonate in a wide variety of contexts?
In the course of the presentation, this very comprehensive project will be briefly introduced with a focus on its possible applications, which will then also be discussed with the help of examples. In addition, the role as well as the handling of this kind of (moving) image material will be critically examined: in museums, memorials and other contexts of mediation and education, on site and with the means of the digital.
Film as Witness? Holocaust Education with Digital Means
Presentation by Ingo Zechner and Vrääth Öhner at the International Conference on Creative\Media/Technologies (IConCMT), Panel 1: Remenbrance Culture (Chair: Georg Vogt)
Not least in view of the current turning point in Holocaust education – the fact that there will soon no longer be any eyewitnesses left to report on the events – educational issues are increasingly focusing on places, but also on images and the possibilities of the digital.
