How Can We Ensure A Sustainable Future for Digital Holocaust Memory?

  In a new working paper published by the United Nations, our Director Prof. Victoria Grace Richardson-Walden highlights key interventions needed from policymakers and funders to help shape digital Holocaust memory at a global scale.   As our research has evidenced, there is a huge amount of ‘digital imagination’ in the Holocaust heritage and education sector, but this is rarely matched with the necessary infrastructure to support the creation of digital projects and their long-term maintenance. Furthermore, professionals often feel like they are reinventing the wheel, when colleagues elsewhere have already learnt the lessons, which they find themselves facing with each new digital venture. During our research, we have encountered many defunct apps, alongside old hardware that could no longer allow updates to programs, unstable data connectivity, missing content, bugs and other problems. 'Sustainability Crisis' A new working paper, published by the United Nations, describes this as a ‘sustainability crisis’. Its findings were informed by a workshop we held with policymakers, funders and transnational stakeholders in June 2024 in response to our recommendation reports. The workshop was held together with The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme, in the United Nations Department of Global Communications. ‘Sustainable Digital Futures for [...]

By |2025-04-30T10:03:07+01:0028 April 2025|

Spotlight on Melbourne Holocaust Museum

by Victoria Grace Walden In perhaps the most unusual way to return from maternity leave, my first day back involved a 24-hour journey from the UK to Melbourne, Australia (and yes, with the baby!). When I originally got in contact with Anna Hirsh – now Manager of Collections and Research at the museum and the fabulous host of my scholar-in-residence – she was working at what was then called Melbourne’s Jewish Holocaust Centre and in 2020 the site closed its doors for a major refurbishment and rebranding. A Long History of Multimedia At that time, staff created a virtual walkthrough of the main exhibition to archive its existence. Now it was closed (as it would have been – pandemic or not), school groups and other visitors could explore its content. This was not just a photo-realist experience of the exhibition space though; it was enhanced by extra video content such as behind-the-scenes moments with curators (Curators’ Corner series) and importantly mini-tours from survivors explaining some of the exhibited materials - much of this additional content came from existing digital projects. Jewish Holocaust Centre Melbourne Virtual Tour The centre was established by a survivor community, opening in March 1984. [...]

By |2024-11-28T11:14:11+00:0026 September 2024|
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