- Title: UK students 'meet' Holocaust survivor through AI technology
- Date: 20th June 2024
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (JUNE 19, 2024) (Reuters) HISTORY STUDENTS LOOKING AROUND IN VIRTUAL REALITY (SOUNDBITE) (English) CLEMENTINE SMITH, TESTIMONY 360 PROGRAMME CO-DEVELOPER, SAYING: "All of the questions that we are allowing students to ask are coming from a bank of questions that we asked Manfred back in 2021. We worked with him for 5 days. He recorded over a thousand an
- Embargoed: 4th July 2024 06:55
- Keywords: Holocaust Educational Trust Karen Pollock Manfred Goldberg Sacred Heart Catholic School Testimony 360 Testimony 360: People and Places of the Holocaust Programme
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK / STUTTHOF, POLAND / KASSEL, GERMANY
- City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK / STUTTHOF, POLAND / KASSEL, GERMANY
- Country: UK
- Topics: Education,Europe,Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA009214519062024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Cutting-edge AI and VR technology is enabling school pupils in the UK to see and talk to Holocaust survivors, even when they are no longer with us, and ask almost any question they can think of.
The programme, called Testimony 360: People and Places of the Holocaust, uses AI to decide the meaning and theme of of any question and then find the correct response from a huge database of pre-recorded answers.
As age takes its toll on the remaining Holocaust survivors, it is becoming increasingly vital to find ways to immortalise their experiences and lessons, according to the programme's developer, the Holocaust Educational Trust (HET).
"Our mission is to ensure that the stories of Holocaust survivors are kept alive, that the subject of the Holocaust, which happened nearly 80 years ago, is still relevant and something that young people and future generations know about," Karen Pollock, HET Chief Executive, told Reuters.
Among those at the programme launch in London on Wednesday (June 19) was 94 year old Manfred Goldberg, the first survivor to feature in Testimony 360 who spent 5 days recording his answers.
He was just nine years old when the war broke out and he spent years as a slave labourer in several death camps. He was liberated by British troops in 1945 and has lived in the UK since 1946.
"It appeared to me that this would be ideal because if they want to hear words from a survivor, that is the way to do it," Goldberg told Reuters at Sacred Heart Catholic School in South London.
"It bordered on magic as far as I was concerned."
The technology allows students to explore Stutthof concentration camp and Goldberg's former home in Kassel in Germany.
The technology was developed in response to a rise in reports of antisemitism across Europe since the attack by Hamas gunmen on southern Israel on Oct. 7 and the subsequent war on the Islamist group launched by Israel.
"Today we're seeing an explosion of antisemitism globally and the testimonies of people like Manfred, preserving them and enabling that testimony to reach so many people in the future, that's the power of this new resource. But it's so important because there are people who, not only today but tomorrow, will be trying to say it didn't happen," Pollock said.
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