Guidelines

Innovative technology can offer interactive and immersive in-situ experiences bridging past and present. This can be achieved by linking spatial history using geo-data, archival photos, audio-visual records, historical research, digitized tangible artifacts, and physical geography. It can also involve re-mediatizing older forms of evocative media such as prisoner and survivor artworks, testimonies, and diaries. Personal documents such as diaries, letters, reports, and testimonies offer insight into multiple perspectives on Nazi persecution that constitute a living heritage. This humanizes the historical account and cultivates a multi-layered digital environment in which users can explore various reconstructed histories and historical viewpoints. This can help in shifting attention from the existing historical canon to biographies, sites, objects, and stories that are less known and often overlooked or ignored. 

However, turning Heritage on Nazi Persecution into the subject of digital enterprises is not without ethical and logistical-technological challenges. 

• How can this be done in thoughtful and responsible ways?
• How can we make heritage on Nazi persecution more accessible and inclusive? 
• How can we foster engagement with such sources and create new resonance in the present?

Computer-based visualization offers new ways of exploring historical sources in interactive environments and linking and interconnecting them with related information. This allows active forms of searching, exploring, and curating digitized heritage objects and materials.

For computer-based visualization of heritage on Nazi persecution, in particular 3D modeling of historical sites, prisoner paintings, and exhibitions, we considered the following principles that should also assist in guiding user engagement with MEMORISE applications and prototypes:

Digitization and computer-based visualization can help preserve and safeguard cultural heritage on Nazi persecution by digitally documenting and archiving historical sites, artifacts, and stories, ensuring their preservation for future generations and mitigating the risk of physical deterioration or loss. In this process, we prioritize respect for the integrity of historical sources. Creating 3D models and other computer-based visualizations based on historical sites and sources demands careful decisions regarding historical accuracy. Considerations include whether or not to ‘fill in’ missing information, to geo-locate models when the specific location is uncertain, to ‘crop’ or alter objects, ‘fix’ ‘mistakes’, and acknowledge the extent of historical reconstruction, all of which must be approached thoughtfully and transparently. 

Ultimately, the model should delicately navigate between reconstruction and stimulating imagination, while maintaining transparency about any alterations made to the original artwork. By openly acknowledging places where the work has been ‘touched,’ the model encourages users to explore the original and engage critically (and comparatively) with the historical context. Users must understand the processes and limits of digital and virtual reconstruction, avoid artificial authenticity effects and emphasize the multi-layered structure of history and the temporality and constant transformation of heritage on Nazi persecution.

Digitization and computer-based visualization can help safeguard and certify historical knowledge, particularly in the face of increasing misinformation and falsification of historical facts. The subject matter must be approached with the utmost sensitivity, recognizing its profound emotional impact on survivors, their families, and the broader community. This includes the careful handling of copyrights and the acquisition of informed consent from relevant stakeholders, ensuring that rights and privacy are respected throughout the development and presentation of computer-based visualizations of heritage on Nazi persecution. 

3D models, virtual environments, digital maps, and digital videography allow users to experience memorial sites remotely and access topographic memory and traces online or through digital applications. They can help make historical sites of Nazi persecution accessible to audiences from a distance.

Content and experiences of computer-based visualizations of heritage on Nazi persecution must be made available to diverse audiences, including people with disabilities, different languages, or limited technological access, ensuring inclusivity and equity in-memory representation.

Digitization and computer-based visualization should emphasize the relevance of engaging with the past by resonating with present concerns while establishing connections between past and present beyond mere analogies. They should offer possibilities for users to connect different sources, documents, and objects with each other, additional information, metadata, etc.

Digitized and visualized heritage can function as an entry point into a broad, multi-layered virtual environment(s) that seamlessly connects various tangible and intangible heritage sources; these may include testimonies, diaries, artworks, historical information, archival sources, and other objects. This holistic approach has the potential to convey more intricate and nuanced narratives while underscoring the interconnectedness of the diverse individual experiences and traumatic fragments that characterize the heritage of Nazi persecution.

Digitization and computer-based visualization can stimulate the imagination of past events, while not authentically reconstructing but offering models for a better understanding of historical experiences and decisions. Instead of fully reconstructing sites or objects, we utilize aesthetics of fragmentation or abstract forms to stimulate the imagination of users, provide orientation, and captivate curiosity. It is important to ensure that users understand and reflect on the difference between a digital or virtual reconstruction and their own present lives to enable resonance effects.

For that reason, heritage sources must not be employed as a mere ‘gimmick’. There should be a clear justification for selecting specific sites or objects as data for computer-based visualization and modeling. It is imperative to ensure that the primary focus remains educational and commemorative, steering clear of any tendency towards entertainment or sensationalism.

Computer-based visualization and narration allow us to connect different perspectives by relating objects, documents, testimonies, and other sources in digital and virtual environments based on 3D modeling. In doing so, users can actively engage with individual experiences and stories derived from personal documents such as diaries, testimonies, or prisoner paintings. This allows for multi-perspective storytelling and cognitive-empathic engagement with biographies from the Nazi past. Telling personal stories and connecting with individual biographies strengthens empathy and allows users to relate to a variety of perspectives on the history of Nazi persecution as well as a better understanding of the interrelation of past and present and significant differences between past and present experiences.

It is essential to recognize that digital technology has the tendency to amplify social biases. 3D models and other visualizations should provide an opportunity to rectify this by giving space to the voices and stories of underrepresented victim groups and mnemonic communities. Furthermore, the digital realm should be leveraged to offer multiple narratives simultaneously, spanning different periods and perspectives, echoing the multifaceted experiences that encompass the heritage on Nazi persecution. We recommend shifting attention from the existing historical canon to biographies, sites, objects, and stories that are less known and continuously overlooked or ignored. They can give voice to marginalized experiences of Nazi persecution.

Digital infrastructures provide new ways of collecting and mediating personal memories and experiences by developing applications that allow generating, documenting, and sharing testimonies in a variety of media formats. They should aim for the empowerment of users while respecting individual boundaries. Their aim should be to generate new experiences of engaging and interacting with cultural heritage. This also includes asking for and taking serious user feedback and creating a responsive environment.

 The participatory nature of digital environments allows users to creatively engage with the heritage and memories of Nazi persecution through acts of searching, interacting, sharing, and creating content. Utilizing digitized heritage on Nazi persecution for user engagement allows one to discover and interact with historical sources such as diaries, letters, photographs, artworks, and films, as well as survivor testimonies and biographies. In doing so, it fosters an active search for information and meaning. This can bridge generational gaps by providing opportunities for intergenerational exchange and dialogue, allowing younger generations to connect with the past and learn from the memories of older generations while promoting intergenerational understanding and dialogue.

However, thoughtful consideration is necessary to determine when it is appropriate to promote interactivity and when a passive walkthrough is more suitable, aligning the computer-based visualization with its intended purpose and target audience.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) does not operate in a social vacuum but rather contributes to shaping the experience, perception, and understanding of human users, whether they belong to the present or to future generations.

AI methods used in MEMORISE should not impose harm on the lives of users, their health, well-being, or security. However, the use of digitally processed heritage on Nazi persecution (HNP) may affect users’ perception and understanding of the past. This might include a confrontation with disturbing historical content selected and distributed through AItrained systems – a risk that can be mitigated through constant monitoring. These guidelines have been closely coordinated with the ethical guidelines developed as part of the MEMORISE project and are based on our further reflections on the possibilities and limits of visualizing HNP.

AI and machine learning can be important tools for analyzing and processing digitized materials related to the heritage on Nazi persecution, especially when dealing with large quantities of documents, photographs, and testimonies. However, digitization of Holocaust-related materials using AI presents both opportunities and challenges, and it is crucial to approach this task with a great sense of responsibility and respect. Concerning the visualization of HNP, we have established conceptual and ethical considerations that form the foundation for the development of applications and prototypes in the MEMORISE project, including AI elements. Here we present some aspects that are of particular importance for dealing with AI in the context of HNP.

● Privacy, Confidentiality, and Dignity: The digitization of HNP-related materials often involves sensitive and personal information about perpetrators, victims, and their families. It is therefore important to make sure the system does not infringe on the right to privacy and that private and sensitive data is protected. We will ensure that the data is protected from misuse or access by unauthorized parties. All data will be handled with care and respect for the privacy and dignity of those affected.

● Diversity, Fairness, Bias, and Discrimination: AI algorithms can sometimes perpetuate or amplify existing biases and discrimination, which could have serious implications when dealing with HNP-related materials. It is crucial to ensure that the AI algorithms used are fair and trained on unbiased and well-curated data collection and that they do not perpetuate any harmful biases or stereotypes.

● Inclusivity in AI Design: It is crucial to ensure inclusivity in digital design to make AI technologies fair, unbiased, and accessible to all individuals, regardless of their backgrounds or characteristics. Designing AI systems with accessibility in mind ensures that individuals with disabilities can fully engage with the technology. Conducting user testing, incorporating user feedback, and ongoing refinement of the design based on user input will help to contribute to the creation of more inclusive and user-friendly AI-reinforced interfaces.

● Accuracy and Authenticity: Digitisation using AI must be accurate and preserve the authenticity of the materials being digitised. This includes preserving the quality and integrity of the data or its representation. This is particularly important for HNP-related materials, as any inaccuracies or alterations could have serious implications for research and historical understanding. Yet, AI methods, like humans, are prone to errors. We rely on manual curation and feedback from user testing to minimize the impacts of such errors as well as to ensure the absence of disruptive flaws.

● Informed Consent: In some cases, the digitization of HNP-related materials may involve personal information about individuals who did not consent to their information being made public. It is important to obtain informed consent from individuals or their families where possible and to ensure that any use of personal information is done in a way that respects the individual’s privacy and dignity.

● Protection from Harm: The AI systems should be designed with a focus on human well-being and empowerment. Human agency, liberty, and dignity should be upheld when developing AI technologies, especially when using technologies that might augment human capabilities.

● Cultural Sensitivity: HNP-related materials are often deeply personal and culturally significant, and it is important to approach their digitization with sensitivity and respect for the cultural context and importance of the materials.

Preventing, and mitigating potential bias, discrimination, and stigmatization in HNP digitization using AI requires a multifaceted approach that involves careful selection of data sources and algorithms, expert review, and regular monitoring and evaluation of the processes. These measures can help to ensure that the digitization process is respectful, transparent, and accountable. It is also important to recognize that AI systems are not neutral or objective and to be transparent about the potential limitations and sources of bias in the digitization process. AI algorithms learn from the data they are trained on, and if the data is incomplete or contains a particular bias, the resulting AI system may perpetuate these biases. For example, as the archival documentation of Nazi persecution is incomplete, certain groups or experiences may be over- or under-represented in the data. Ensuring that the input data used is representative and diverse, and derived from multiple sources can help to prevent bias or discrimination based on a limited or skewed data set.

MEMORISE prototypes and digital infrastructures employ advanced AI technologies to enhance the user experience with digitized historical documents and personal stories. A set of guidelines aims to provide transparency about the use of AI in organizing and processing data, including automatic translation of documents in the development, improvement, and implementation of these prototypes and digital infrastructures, matching users with specific historical biographies, and topics.

MEMORISE prototypes and digital infrastructures utilize:

● AI algorithms to categorize and organize historical documents. This process involves machine learning models that analyze patterns, themes, and metadata to provide a systematic and efficient exploration experience.

● AI-assisted automated tagging to identify key themes, events, and people within documents and other heritage materials. This enhances search functionalities and allows for a more nuanced understanding of the content.

● AI language processing to improve automatic translation features, breaking down language barriers and making content accessible to a global audience.

● Machine translation models that analyze and convert historical documents into the chosen language. Users can enable or disable this feature based on their preferences. Machine-translated texts and documents are labeled accordingly.

● Generative AI, to create descriptions, summaries, and other informative texts. Thorough fact-checking protocols ensure that these texts do not contain any errors or false information.

● Matching and recommendation algorithms to personalize content and propose points of contact that prompt users to engage with specific biographies, stories, and heritage materials.

MEMORISE prototypes and digital infrastructures do not utilize:

● Any AI tools that could harm the health, well-being, and safety of users, or that might have overwhelming emotional effects.

● AI-based machine learning that uses or stores personal user data without the user’s knowledge.

● Generative AI for the artificial production of historical sources. In accordance with our ethical principles, the integrity of sources is given the highest priority.

In order to enhance visibility and transparency when interacting and engaging with MEMORISE prototypes and applications, users:

● Are informed about the use of particular methods, machine learning, and AI-trained systems for development, improvement, and implementation, and their implicit and explicit bias.

● Receive visible indications of the use of AI when they interact with certain tools and information.

● Can access a summary of the content used for training and the nature of algorithms involved in the process.

● Can independently decide on the use of machine learning-based algorithms and deactivate matching and recommendation algorithms

The project is committed to introducing benchmarking standards that better contextualize the data used, to avoid irritation and confusion in the human-computer interaction (HCI), and to a prudent, user-oriented, and ethically informed curation of data.

As the number of Holocaust survivors decreases, the need for innovative methods to preserve their memories becomes crucial. MEMORISE leverages social media to communicate these stories effectively, targeting diverse, digital-native audiences. By transforming historical materials like diaries, letters, and artworks into an engaging and accessible content, we ensure the continued relevance of Holocaust memory.

Every piece of content must provide proper historical context, including a brief description of the source (e.g., the author of a diary or the artist of a painting) and links to further resources or full collections as far as the possibilities of the respective platform allow. This ensures users can delve deeper into the material if they choose.

Focus on humanizing the Holocaust by telling personal, relatable stories. Content should evoke emotional connections while maintaining historical accuracy. Short biographical narratives or first-person testimonies can create powerful, intimate experiences for users.

Adapt content to the specific affordances of each platform, such as Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube, where visuals and concise formats excel. Use short videos, infographics, or slideshows to ensure content is easily consumable without sacrificing depth.
Examples:

• Short Biographical Videos: Capture personal stories through visual storytelling, incorporating imagery and voiceovers from primary sources like diaries or letters.
• Influencer Collaborations: Engage influencers with relevant audiences to amplify MEMORISE’s message, ensuring a balance of reach and substance.

All content must align with MEMORISE’s ethical guidelines (see “Ethical Guidelines” above), ensuring respectful representation of victims and survivors. Avoid pure sensationalism, focus on authenticity, and maintain sensitivity when sharing traumatic histories, including adding trigger-warnings to posts if very upsetting topics are discussed or diaries read.

Foster two-way interactions, for example through engaging techniques such as ‘Ask Me Anything’ sessions, live streams with historians, or discussion threads, allowing users to actively participate, reflect, and raise the questions they find interesting.

Develop content tied to specific Holocaust memorial sites, using local languages to resonate with regional audiences.

Teaching and learning about the Holocaust in the digital age confronts educators with a number of contemporary challenges. As the generation of survivors passes away, fewer and fewer eye-witnesses are able to share their stories. A valuable source of personalized knowledge and information, that did not only offer new perspectives for researching the history of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution, but that also helped generations of learners to connect to history in a personal way, is now missing. Therefore, digital environments that use personal biographical documents and first-hand accounts of victims can be understood as a helpful tool to create meaningful, historical and knowledge-based experiences for learners to engage with the past, while filling the gap of the missing survivors’ stories. Still, these newly developed learning possibilities need thorough educational reflection.

We have defined the following educational goals and principles for the use of MEMORISE prototypes in learning environments and for teaching purposes. The methods for using those digital tools and applications have to be made transparent and defined in relation to the educational goals.

The quality of digital methods, tools and applications is defined by their level of transparency. Teachers and learners have to be able to understand which data has been used, connected and visualized and how the computer to human interaction is structured. This includes understanding algorithmic content curation. The learners should be familiar with the mechanism and functions of the tool and know which historical sources it is based on. In addition, educators have the task to make themselves familiar with a method/ tool/ application before they use it for educational purposes with a specific target group and choose user-friendly tools.

The digital method/ tool/ application should present the possibility to learn with concrete historical source material or connect and reference historical sources. This provides authentication and reminds the learners of the actual historical dimension of the subject. Historical sources can be textual, visual, auditive and audio-visual. The perspective of the sources has to always be transparent and contextualized, and it has to be always properly referenced.

The digital method/ tool/ application should offer the possibility to engage with the historical source material by asking questions. Learning how to ask questions can be a productive tool for historical and cultural learning as well as to identify misinformation. The educational idea is to enable the learners to develop and ask questions on the historical context, different sources, the aesthetics and visualisation. The content of the question will be decisive for which further information will be generated for the learners. This creates an active approach, in which the learners have the opportunity to, at least in part, actively intervene in the pre-curated narrative – tailored to their analytical skills and further interests. This can foster independence and curiosity while answering a need for interactivity and participation in the learning process. It is motivating to have your own questions answered, but it is also essential for navigating a challenging digital environment and therefore poses an important analytical skill.

Among the historical sources of the Holocaust an overwhelming majority was produced by the perpetrators and their collaborators, often in administrative settings. To be able to contextualize or show a certain aspect of the history of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution those sources often have to be integrated in educational material. It is essential for the historical evaluation of the events today, that the origin and perspective of a source is always transparent and that the learners are aware through which perspective they are learning about history. This is necessary to avoid stereotyping and stigmatizing and to break the continuation of violence that is expressed through the perpetrator sources.

The stories of individual and mass-violence within the history of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution contained in sources and on historical sites can evoke strong emotional and cognitive reactions for the learners. To be able to keep the educational experience manageable and effective in terms of knowledge gain, levels of curiosity and motivation to learn, the learners have to be supported in reflecting their own position as students. Interactive and participatory methods that offer the learners to contribute from their own contemporary perspective or that make them understand the level of their own previous knowledge and pre-conceptions of history can be helpful in this process.

An important goal of Holocaust Education is to reverse the dehumanization that the victims of Nazi persecution were subjected to historically. Dehumanization was a process necessary for the perpetrators to commit the mass-murder and it is deeply entrenched in our understanding of the events today. When learning about the choices and actions of those persecuted through the ego-documents they produced, the learners gain a better understanding about humanity, beyond them being victims. This can be as simple as mentioning the motivation behind producing a source, a letter, a diary entry and its meaning for us today. It can also be helpful to extract age-appropriate themes from the documents that resonate with the learner’s own experience and can therefore be understood on a personal level: such as, the relationship to a family member or the missing of a certain place.

Historical places, representing mass-atrocities of the Nazi-period contain multiple perspectives and represent the multi-layered past and present of a place. Learning on-site with the help of digital tools that draw the attention of the learners to the often-invisible layers of personal experiences enhances knowledge and understanding of the historical dimension, while contextualizing it in the respective historical space. It also enables learners to draw connections between their own reality and history by visiting a physical site.

For appropriate Holocaust Education it is essential to avoid simple explanations for complex questions. Precise language and a balance of different perspectives can be helpful to achieve this goal. Multiperspective teaching shows the different layers and perspectives that one historical event incorporates and fosters an understanding for the complexity of a historical process. This understanding can be translated to contemporary societal changes and mechanisms and leads to the ability for a more complex and less simplistic understanding of contemporary challenges and phenomena.

The ethical boundaries of visual representation of difficult content need to be constantly re-negotiated, and re-defined in the digital age. A digital teaching method/ tool/ application on the history of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution should enable educators and learners to participate and position themselves in this process. The interactive and participatory methods of digital environments should introduce the educators and learners to ethical questions and make them actors in defining these, through asking: What are my own boundaries? What could be the boundaries of others? What does this mean for survivors/ families of the survivors?

Learning offers on Holocaust and Nazi history should enable the learners to form an individual opinion on the events themselves and their relevance for today. Digital methods/ tools/ applications need to connect knowledge with the meaning and understanding of history to enable learners to be able to identify false, de-contextualized or oversimplified information and to make a valid argument.

Digital methods/ tools/ applications should encourage a user’s communication with peers, educators and/ or experts during the learning process. The interaction of the learners with their newly acquired knowledge can take place on various platforms. An effective method for processing learned information can also be individual digital content creation of learners. The visibility of these products can lead to a voluntary or involuntary connection of one’s own content to other creators and related contemporary issues. Against this background, the learners should be enabled to transfer their knowledge to other contexts and to contextualize the engagement they receive. An essential part of this process is to give feedback to the learners on the content and form of their output along historical and ethical questions. The feedback should be constructive and empowering.

Digital design for HNP education should consider actively integrating the professional participation of actors, stakeholders and representatives of different target groups representing different abilities and disabilities in the development process of the material and UX design.

Furthermore, the digital Holocaust and HNP education methods, applications and tools should consider the needs of diverse users across all ages and locations. Concerning the application of inclusivity and “Design for All” on the historical context and content conveyed, we suggest not to over-categorize the victims and counter discrimination in the representation of the topic and include lesser-known victim groups. Additionally, accessible language and multilingual options should be available as well. Digital methods can generate content that fits user needs and increases accessibility. The use of such methods is highly recommended.

In Holocaust and HNP education role play can cause students to identify with the historical actors in non-productive ways. Role-play trivialises the experiences of victims and can suggest that we could feel the same way people felt as victims of Nazi persecution and the Holocaust. It also reproduces stereotypes about the victims and the groups they belong to, since those pose our frame of reference. Education should challenge those stereotypes rather than reproducing them. For this reason, role play should be avoided. For digital methods, tools and applications this means avoiding immersion in the historical Nazi-period. The interactive and participatory approaches of digital learning and teaching enable users/ learners to manipulate a historical narrative. This counteracts the goals of historical education and has the potential to distort history rather than helping to maintain historical accuracy.

One of the advantages of learning with digital tools is the fact that feedback and evaluation functions can be directly integrated. Beyond that, constructive feedback given by educators enables the learners to focus on the learning effects of an activity rather than the actual outcome. At the same time, it requires the teachers and educators to get involved with the content the digital method/ tool or application provides and creates an exchange between learners and teachers, which can be carried further to a follow-up activity or even create a stronger, more sustainable educational relationship and form a stronger bond to the content. Both, learners and teachers should have the opportunity to evaluate the method/ tool and application as well as the educational setting it was embedded in. This can help to monitor the effectiveness and makes the users feel integrated and taken seriously.

The 4C+C2 approach translates the pedagogical principles into key concepts:

● Combining sources, documents and materials

● Connecting to the memorial sites and historical objects

● Contrasting perspectives, decision making processes and scopes of action

● Contextualizing historical information and data

These application-oriented key concepts are combined with two additional elements, which are formulated primarily from the user’s perspective. They are intended to strengthen active, exploratory and creative learning, and in this sense contribute to the imparting of “experiential knowledge” in and through digital tools and learning environments:

● Creating user-generated content as part of the historical learning process

● Collaborating with others digitally and physically