What is our relationship to the physicality of a place? I don’t think that it matters this much whether it is a death camp or a concentration camp. […] That goes beyond education
about the Holocaust. That is a broader question for educators and for people. What is our relationship to physical places in a moment where our lives have shifted online? There is something about the moment that we are in, and yes, the pandemic has sort of made it very clear how drastically fast the changes are, but this existential crisis has been happening
for a few decades. Losing the survivors slowly, and the pandemic sped it up. During
the pandemic, we all shifted online, so our media literacy has shifted. We’re catching up with the kids that have been there for ten or fifteen years. So, we are shocked, but we are just catching up. – Dr. Maria Zalewska
Institutions are decision-makers, and their approach to technology should be deliberate and cautious because the responsibility is significant. However, this discussion may already be happening too late, as the world is advancing at a rapid pace. Answers to questions about the use of modern technologies or even games have not been codified, making
it challenging to find the right one.
Physical memorial sites anchor the more ephemeral online memory, which wouldn't exist without the physical places. We live in a hybrid world where the two must complement each other. A place like Auschwitz-Birkenau preserves the silent witnesses (barracks, shoes, etc.) of the horrific crimes committed here, while an institution like the USC Shoah Foundation holds the largest repository of testimonies. Their goals and strategies are obviously different but ultimately complement each other.
For Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński, the director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, the goal
in visiting an authentic site is not only to acquire knowledge about history, but it is primarily a question of moral reflection about oneself as a human being in this world.
The preservation of an authentic site serves this purpose. Coming here should make us contemplate our moral responsibility and role in today's society concerning issues like racism, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia. This train of thought led him to ask the panelists: What are the deeply anthropological choices among these new technologies that we should consider in light of the specificities of authentic sites?
The common point among all these very different memorials and authentic sites, such as Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau, or even Murambi in Rwanda, is that they all deeply affect us. These physical sites inspire visitors to seek more knowledge online. It is an impossible challenge to think that we could find a way to replace a visit to an authentic site, as it offers a multi-sensory experience. The emotions and experiences on-site cannot be replicated with digital tools. The potential of online platforms and virtual spaces serves a different purpose, providing a globally accessible archive. This is what digital culture can do in a truly productive and positive way, granting access to databases that we haven't been able
to access before. It is an incredibly powerful opportunity for both people who have
or haven't visited the site before.
I think the great opportunity in being in a physical space is you look up, you look around, you experience it through all of your senses. At the same time, I think there is
an opportunity for technology, especially when it’s a choice. In some of the memorial’s presentations that we saw today, to use a tablet potentially, to see a photo of what the site looked like, or listen to a testimony at a certain point, feels like it could be a real benefit
to those visitors.