“Inge, tell me about the concentration camps”: using artificial intelligence, a Holocaust survivor answers questions and reflects on the trials of her life in an educational dialogue.
On the screen, Inge Auerbacher calmly evokes the meaning of the yellow star sewn on her coat at the time, the night of her deportation, her crossing by boat to the United States after the war.
In the background, on the multi-dimensional screen, we see buildings burning, shop windows exploding: it’s Kristallnacht, a series of pogroms launched in Germany against the Jews from November 9 to 10, 1938.
The conversation takes place via a virtual reality headset or a smartphone.
The idea is to “give young people the opportunity to meet a Holocaust survivor face-to-face” thanks to artificial intelligence, Stephen Smith, director of Storyfile, the Los Angeles-based company, told AFP. Angeles who developed this video chat technology.
Inge Auerbacher, 88, came to Berlin from New York, where she lives, for this week’s presentation of this educational tool.
“This technology exists and it must be used. History is alive: we must not forget what happened,” she says.
On the lapel of his jacket, a brooch in the shape of a butterfly. This American of German origin, deported at the age of 7 to the Nazi camp of Theresienstadt (Czech Republic), made it a symbol recalling the memory of 1.5 million Jewish children killed in the Nazi extermination camps during the Second World War.
Testifying is the fight of her life: this woman with short black hair has written six books and documentaries trace her journey to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive.
Artificial intelligence allows, according to her, to open up new opportunities: “With a book, you have to visualize the environment in your head but with this technology, you can see it with your own eyes.”
This tool comes at a time when the last survivors of the Shoah are disappearing, raising questions about the question of the transmission of memory.
To develop this animation, Inge Auerbacher answered more than 60 questions in German and English. A two day long interview.
When a user asks a question including one of the keywords displayed on the screen, the system jumps to that section of the interview and Inge “answers”, creating the effect of an immersive one-on-one exchange. .
The use of this advanced technology comes in a context of resurgence of anti-Semitism which has alarmed the German authorities for several years.
The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, has multiplied calls to strengthen the fight against the spread of far-right ideas, represented in the Bundestag by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party since 2017.
“Thanks to virtual reality, we manage to convey history with great empathy and sensitivity,” observes Felix Klein, the federal government representative for Jewish life in Germany and the fight against anti-Semitism.
The experience, called “Tell me, Inge…” was presented by the company StoryFile in partnership with the digital giant Meta, which organized the event in its Berlin premises.
A way for the group to “reach the greatest number of people” and “to make them aware of the Holocaust, whether they know it or not” this part of history, according to Julia Reuss, director of public policies for Europe central for Meta.
She says this is “only the beginning” and that “documentation centers”, in particular, are interested in the technology.
A second virtual reality project for museums is underway, says the boss of StoryFile, who was also the director for 12 years of the USC Shoah Foundation, which promotes education in the history of the Holocaust.
When asked how she felt seeing her own image in the virtual reality headset, Inge Auerbacher laughs: “I thought to myself, how young do I look? ! I was happy”.
07/06/2023 13:29:44 — Berlin (AFP) © 2023 AFP