The web project
The web project
#uploading_holocaust is a multimedia web project intent on finding out how teenagers today handle the memory of the Holocaust, and how they envisage a contemporary culture of remembrance in the digital age.
How does remembrance work today? #uploading_holocaust approaches this question with a combination of video footage and an interactive questionnaire. Starting point for the web project are authentic YouTube videos by Jewish students form Israel who every year go on the so-called “Journey to Poland”, a one week school trip to trace their ancestors killed by the Nazi regime in Poland. The teenagers capture their impressions on this trip in YouTube videos that allow for an authentic and engaging insight into their handling of the past.
The web project confronts German and Austrian adolescents with the YouTube videos of Israeli students, and takes these for an occasion to reflect on one’s own position towards the Holocaust. Is the subject at all relevant still to the fourth generation? Which taboos and expectations do teenagers of our day face? To what extent are German-speaking teenagers capable of understanding the emotions of their Israeli counterparts? Do those with an ancestral social past of either perpetrators or victims still fear contact with each other?
Users of this project answer questions on various thematic blocks, and receive, after entering their answer, a real-time visualization that puts their opinion in relation to the other users. If an entire class registers for the project, that class’ overall attitude may be regarded individually.
It is the goal of #uploading_holocaust to put the assumed juvenile disinterest to the test, and to trigger discussions on the handling of the Holocaust – not only in class, within families, and in social media, but as well beyond national borders.