Interactive 3-D Hologram Preserves Holocaust Survivors - Forever and Ever

The developments in interactive 3-D technology are on the verge of empowering Holocaust survivors to time travel into the future. This sophisticated technology will enable the last Holocaust survivors to tell their story after they die so that they can be remembered forever.

A discovery that was made by the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Chicago found a way to permanently preserve survivor stories in the world's first 3-D interactive hologram exhibition. Much like Siri or Alexa, you can ask the hologram questions pertaining Holocaust survival.

"Do you think you were brave during the Holocaust?" a moderator asked.

The 3-D hologram of Holocaust survivor Aaron Elster answered: "I never considered myself brave or courageous. I just had the audacity, the will, the need to live. Is that courage? Is that bravery? I don't know. I don't look at it that way. I look at it as maybe being selfish because I wanted to live while everyone else around me was dying or being killed."

Elster managed to escape the ghetto and hid for nearly two years in the attic of a Polish family, at that time he was 10 years old. He was fed soup and a slice of bread once a day by a woman known as Mrs. Gorski. Unfortunately, he was not able to step out of the attic until the World War 2.

"There's so many things that I remember that are so distinct," Elster's hologram says. "Hunger, the terrible wrenching in your stomach. I was so hungry. The daydreams of having a full stomach. What would it be like to be able to say I had enough?"

"We had been grappling with how we tell Holocaust survivor stories in an engaging way for generations to come. And we came across the USC Shoah Foundation in California who recorded a Holocaust survivor over multiple days. And then used a custom natural voice-recognition software to allow people to ask the recording a question and have the recording answer," said Shoshana Buchholz-Miller, Vice President of Education and Exhibitions at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.

A combined effort between the museum and USC Shoah Foundation brought the exhibition to life. Media liaison Josh Grossberg said: "'They all come to Los Angeles for about a week, and they sit under a dome of lights surrounded by more than 100 cameras. And we go through the process of asking them 1,500 or so questions. It takes several days. … For us, it wasn't only about the technology. I know the technology is pretty cool when you look at it. For us, it's all about telling stories."

"Did you keep your faith during the Holocaust?" a moderator asked.

"My faith was troubling," Elster's hologram said. "I didn't lose faith in God, but I questioned his motives. I questioned how he could he stand by and watch 100 and a half million be slaughtered for what purpose. What did they ever do?"

Elster settled in Chicago got married, signed up for the military and had two sons.

"After survival, everybody wanted revenge," says the real Elster. "Vengeance for what was done to our lives, to our families. As a teenager, I was really full of hate. I realized that if I continue to hate, I'm destroying my own life."

Elster saw his hologram for the first time, he said: "The truth is, I was crying, and it brought tears to my eyes. I was very emotional, and I don't understand why. … That human being sitting there, speaking directly to me, I was very much affected by that. So even today, and I've seen it many times with students, I still choke up at certain things because it brings me back to that time."

Anti-Semitic views are still in existence even after 84 years since the Holocaust began, this has also led to an increase of hate groups as reported by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Source: https://www.newsy.com/stories/holocaust-survivors-preserved-in-3-d-interactive-hologram