Holocaust History in the Digital Age

Efforts to educate the public about the Holocaust have depended on survivors who were willing to share their stories in person. But the last generation of survivors able to do this critical work—those who were child victims—are now in their eighties and nineties. Thus museums and educational centers across the country face the question of how to ensure that future generations of students and teachers have access to the voices of victims. Digital Humanities offers new ways to preserve and tell survivors’ stories. In this experiential learning course, teams of students will partner with our local Holocaust museum, Cincinnati’s Holocaust and Humanity Center (HHC), on semester-long digital projects. The results will be websites in ArcGIS StoryMaps based on the testimony of local survivors. A team from the museum and UC will maintain the websites for HHC’s use in its interactive exhibits at Museum Center and its work with Cincinnati Public Schools. In tandem with these semester-long projects, students will learn about and reflect on the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust, major debates in Holocaust historiography, and ongoing discussions about the ethical questions raised by the use of digital humanities methods in Holocaust Studies.