THE LAST GOODBYE: BEARING WITNESS THROUGH VR

Muse News | Amy Intrator

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When you listen to a witness, you become a witness.
― Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel was a Holocaust survivor and a prolific writer; his powerful message is a reminder to hear survivors speak, so we can bear witness to their testimony. But as time passes and there are fewer living survivors, how can we ensure future generations bear witness? In today’s edition of Muse News, I’m going to explore the USC Shoah Foundation’s virtual reality film The Last Goodbye, the first VR to take viewers to a concentration camp. In this film you walk alongside Pinchas Gutter, a Toronto-based Holocaust survivor, as he returns to the former concentration camp Majdanek, where his entire family was killed during the Holocaust. Over the last month, I have had the privilege of working on the Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre’s special presentation of this film in partnership with the USC Shoah Foundation. Today, I’m going to consider how this precedent-breaking, newsworthy project may shape the future of memory.

Promotion for USC Shoah Foundation's VR film, The Last Goodbye. Source.

Background: Creating The Last Goodbye

The USC Shoah Foundation is an organization dedicated to preserving and sharing the testimonies of individuals who have survived genocide. The Foundation was born from the making of the film Schindler’s List, when the director, Steven Spielberg, understood the need to capture survivors’ complete testimonies and preserve their narratives. Today, the Foundation’s Visual History Archive includes over 55,000 video testimonies of survivors and witnesses of genocide.

The Last Goodbye is the Foundation’s latest effort to re-imagine the future of survivor testimony using computer technology. In July 2016, Pinchas Gutter, a Holocaust survivor based in Toronto, returned to the concentration camp where his entire family was killed during the Holocaust. To create the film, Pinchas was accompanied by a filming crew that captured thousands of photos that were stitched together to create 3D images that were then paired with his video testimony. The result: a haunting VR film where the viewer has the feeling that they are walking alongside Pinchas as he returns to Majdanek, while hearing him reflect on this place of suffering and loss.

The film premiered in April 2017 at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. In September 2018, The Last Goodbye premiered at four museums located in New York,  Los Angeles, Chicago, and St. Petersburg, Florida.

Please join us for the world premiere of 'The Last Goodbye’ at The Tribeca Film Festival. Walk alongside Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter in this profoundly immersive VR testimony as he tours the concentration camp where his parents and sister lost their lives during World War II and for a moment borrow from his courage. Co-produced by USC Shoah Foundation, HERE BE DRAGONS, MPC VR and OTOY. Featuring an original soundtrack by Dražen Bošnjak of Q Department and Installation Experience by David Korins. We hope to see you April 21-29. #Tribeca2017 #Storyscapes #TheLastGoodbyeVR #USCShoahFoundation #HereBeDragonsVR #MPCVR #OTOY #QDepartment #DavidKorins

A post shared by USC Shoah Foundation (@uscshoahfoundation) on Apr 17, 2017 at 12:09pm PDT

Today: Finding New Audiences in Toronto

Over the last month, I have helped facilitate The Last Goodbye during its Toronto premiere, presented by the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre and the USC Shoah Foundation.

The special presentation is a part of the Neuberger Centre’s annual Holocaust Education Week programming, but this program is completely unlike anything offered in the past. The presentation is hosted at Ctrl V North York, a venue that offers virtual reality experiences year-round. Hosting the program at this venue, which is equipped with VR technology and a purpose-built space, means that up to 17 viewers can experience the film simultaneously. The Neuberger Centre offered open hours where members of the public could experience the film, as well as private bookings for school groups.

Neuberger education staff are hard at work testing out @uscshoahfoundation's award winning virtual reality experience #TheLastGoodbye. This November, in honour of #HEW2018, follow Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter's return to Majdanek Death Camp from right here in Toronto. Want to know more? holocaustcentre.com/last-goodbye #holocausteducation #survivortestimony #virtualreality #toronto

A post shared by Neuberger Holocaust Centre (@holocaust_ed) on Oct 24, 2018 at 11:37am PDT

I have facilitated several public viewings and heard from visitors after the extremely moving experience. When you are in the film, you are prompted to walk around and look at the terrible place as Pinchas recounts his own history. The film is playing simultaneously in individual stations, which means each viewer can interact with the VR film on their own, but afterwards there is a group of people that have all experienced this powerful, immersive testimony.


Tomorrow: Navigating the Future of Memory

The Last Goodbye represents an important innovation: using virtual reality technology to share survivor testimonies. The technology may provide a route to connecting to future audiences who live in a time where there are no more first-hand witnesses of the Holocaust. The VR experience simulates returning to a concentration camp with a survivor, and for a future generation, this may be the closest they can get to walking alongside a survivor as they hear first-hand testimony.

More and more museums are beginning to incorporate technology like VR to create immersive experiences for visitors, but I wanted to understand current impressions of VR from the perspective of someone studying user-centered technology. I asked Vipasha Shaikh, a student studying User Experience Design (UXD), if VR has the potential to engage future generations. Vipasha commented:

          I think VR is certainly an emerging field … it's well suited for digital storytelling and I
          wouldn't be surprised if it gets adapted on a wider scale in this capacity by museums.
          I'm uncertain if this will be the case for other industries.


In addition to this “digital storytelling,” others have compared VR to an “empathy machine” where individuals literally see the world through another’s eyes. The Last Goodbye is a critical intervention in the trajectory of both VR and Holocaust education, as it asks the viewer to experience the testimony of a survivor and see a site where thousands were killed.

The film transforms the viewer into a witness, and for future generations without living Holocaust survivors, this experience could be transformational.

PIVOTAL MOMENTS: HOW DO WE UNDERSTAND THE HOLOCAUST TODAY?

THROWBACK THURSDAY

BY: LEORE ZECHARIA

Today marks the beginning of Holocaust Education Week presented by the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre here in Toronto. This week consists of hundreds of programs across Toronto and the GTA that follow this year’s theme of ‘Pivotal Moments’. ‘Pivotal Moments’ examines those specific events post-Holocaust that have helped shape our understanding of the Holocaust. So, for this week, I would like to throw it back to the formation and proliferation of Holocaust museums, monuments and memorials.

1. Yad Vashem (Jerusalem, Israel, 1953)

Yad Vashem was established in 1953 and is one of the first institutions dedicated to the research and commemoration of the Holocaust. It was established by the Knesset, the Federal Government of Israel, and is made of up several buildings situated on its Mount Herzl compound, known as “The Mount of Remembrance”. Yad Vashem has multiple resources, such as databases, resources for educators, students, a history museum, art galleries, courses, exhibitions and libraries. Its main mission is to continue the relevance of the Holocaust to the future generations of the world, and to educate visitors about the Holocaust as a uniquely Jewish experience while encouraging empathy.

Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum (Top). Source. Aerial view of the Mount Herzl compound (Bottom). Source.

2. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (Oświęcim, Poland, 1947)

Probably the most notorious of the Nazi camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau was established by the Nazis in 1940. It was made up of three main camps: Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II, and Auschwitz III. All three used its prisoners for forced labour, however its killing centre was housed in Auschwitz II, Auschwitz Birkenau. Between 1940 and 1945, approximately 1.1 million people were murdered there, including Jews, Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, and other nationalities. On July 2, 1947, the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum was created by order of the Polish parliament, which covered 191 hectares of Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II. The museum grounds include many of the camp’s buildings, ruins of the gas chambers, crematoria, and camp roads, with the museum itself holdings thousands of artifacts. In 1979, the site was entered on UNESCO’s international list of world heritage sites.

Entrance gate to Auschwitz, which reads "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Will Set You Free). Photo by Leore Zecharia.

3. Banks of the Danube River (Budapest, Hungary, 2005)

In front of the Hungarian Parliament Building, lining the banks of the Danube River, stands sixty pairs of iron shoes facing the river. This memorial commemorates the hundreds of Jews who were murdered by the Arrow Cross Party who took control of Hungary, in cooperation with the Nazis, in the final years of WWII. Jews were rounded up and taken to the banks of the Danube, where they were forced to take off their shoes and valuables before being shot into the river. This memorial was created by film director, Can Togay, and sculptor, Gyula Pauer in 2005.

Iron shoes lining the Danube River. Source.

4. Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (Berlin, Germany, 2005)

In 1999, the German government decided to officially create a central memorial site, designed by New York architect, Peter Eisenman. The memorial covers 19,000 square meters and consists of 2711 concrete slabs at different heights. The area is meant to be engaged with and is accessible from all four sides. The unevenness of the ground, the openness of the structure, and the abstractness of the project is meant to allow the visitor to confront the topic in their own way. Due to the abstractness, the memorial is supplemented with an underground information centre with information on victims and locations.

Top view of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin, Germany (Top). Source. Inside view of the memorial (Bottom). Source.

5. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington, D.C., 1993)

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) was established on the national mall in Washington, D.C. in 1993 by the United States Federal Government. It was established as part of a federal mandate to educate Americans about the Holocaust, but has evolved to include other genocides, promoting the lessons and consequences of the Holocaust as a model for today. The USHMM is more than just a museum, but a leading world institution in the dissemination of knowledge, research and commemoration of the Holocaust.

Outside shot of USHMM. Source.

6. Anne Frank's House (Amsterdam, Holland, 1960)

Anne Frank was a Jewish girl from Amsterdam who had to go into hiding during the Holocaust in order to escape the Nazis. She and seven others hid in a secret annex in one of her father’s buildings. During her time in hiding, she kept a diary where she documented her time and feelings; she wrote short stories and collected quotes by other writers. After two years in hiding, the eight of them were discovered and deported to concentration camps. Anne and her sister died in Bergen-Belson camp from disease and deprivation. Her father and the only one to survive, Otto Frank, published Anne’s diary in 1947, allowing her to complete her dreams of being an author. Anne Frank’s diary has been translated into many different languages and adapted into a play, and is studied by millions of people around the world. In 1960, the Anne Frank House was established as a museum, and it is situated inside the secret annex of the Frank family.

People lining up to visit Anne Frank's House. Source.

Part of how we have come to understand the Holocaust is through the proliferation of Holocaust museums, memorials, and monuments. In Europe, people can learn about these events through significant sites of the Holocaust, but elsewhere in the world, that is done through museums. With the Holocaust becoming more distant in the past, and the number of survivors declining more and more every year, I urge you to listen to someone's story, because soon, museums, memorials and monuments are going to be the only way to engage in this history.

For more information:

Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre 

See 'New Dimensions in Testimony'
Shoah Foundation - Visual History Archive

Exhibition - Built to Remember: The Holocaust Museums of Today and Tomorrow
November 2-29, 2018 at the J Gallery at the Miles Nadal JCC (Bloor and Spadina)

Holocaust Education Week Programs
Holocaust Education Week Program Guide