Virtual Survivor Testimony Exhibit Opens at Holocaust Museum LA

When you ask Holocaust survivor Renee Firestone if she can show you her tattoo, she will immediately oblige, rolling up the sleeve of her blazer to reveal faded digits—A12307—on her left forearm.

“Can you see?” the 97-year-old will say, and although you are communicating with a pre-recorded, virtual version of Firestone, you can. 

On July 31, Holocaust Museum Los Angeles launched “Dimensions in Testimony,” giving visitors the opportunity to have a virtual “one-on-one” conversation with a Holocaust survivor.

The exhibition allows people to ask a digital Firestone about her experiences during the Holocaust and receive a real-time response.

Offered in partnership with the USC Shoah Foundation, the exhibition allows people to ask a digital Firestone about her experiences during the Holocaust and receive a real-time response.

Representing the next stage in survivor testimonies, the effort was undertaken with knowledge that the survivor population is decreasing and firsthand witnesses will not be around much longer. It was also done at a time when ignorance about the Holocaust, particularly among millennials and Gen-Z, is high. 

“Our museum was founded by survivors who wanted to share their stories publicly and educate the next generation,” Holocaust Museum LA CEO Beth Kean said. “With ‘Dimensions in Testimony,’ countless future generations of visitors and students can hear those stories from the survivors and learn directly from those who were there, even when they are no longer with us.”

At the Pan Pacific Park-based museum, which reopened in July following a yearlong closure because of the pandemic, a booth in the rear of the campus houses the installation. A hi-definition monitor displays a video image of a nearly life-size Firestone, who, waiting for the visitor’s question, occasionally fidgets in her chair. 

Representing the next stage in survivor testimonies, the effort was undertaken with knowledge that the survivor population is decreasing and firsthand witnesses will not be around much longer. It was also done at a time when ignorance about the Holocaust, particularly among millennials and Gen-Z, is high.

Seated in the booth on a bench across from the screen, the museum visitor asks questions to Firestone using a microphone. Then, relying on advanced voice-recognition technology, a computer built into the back of the screen matches the question with the most relevant response from her. 

“How old were you when you were deported from your home?” “What was your daily life like while at Auschwitz?”— Firestone’s responses to these questions come from a lengthy interview she gave in L.A. over the course of five days in 2015, when she sat on a light stage inside a dome-like structure equipped with more than 100 cameras and answered more than 1,000 questions. 

“It was an incredible week,” Kia Hays, program manager of immersive innovations collections at the USC Shoah Foundation told the Journal. “Renee is just an amazing woman. Everyone can learn something from her. I absolutely did.”

Since 2010, the USC Shoah Foundation has recorded nearly 50 survivor interviews this way, and “Dimensions in Testimony” exhibitions have been installed around the country. 

If a survivor is asked a question and does not have the answer to it, his/her response will be something like, “I don’t have an answer to your question.” However, machine learning, coupled with human intervention, allows the experience to improve every time a conversation is conducted.  

Firestone offers stories shedding light on what she experienced. When asked if she brought anything with her to Auschwitz, where she was deported to in 1944, she speaks about how prior to her relocation, she believed she was being sent to Germany to work. The then-20-year-old wanted to bring along her bathing suit, a recent gift from her father, featuring stretchy fabric she adored. With no room in her luggage, Firestone wore the suit underneath her clothing as she headed to Auschwitz. 

“It shows you the deception forced upon them,” Kean said.

Firestone is one of the oldest remaining survivors in the world. Born in Czechoslovakia and a survivor of both Auschwitz and a death march, she moved to the United States in 1948 and became a successful couture fashion designer. 

At the Holocaust Museum LA, Kean asked the virtual Firestone a final question: “Renee, do you have a message for us?” and Firestone responded with a message of hopefulness despite all she went through: “Remember the past,” Firestone said. “And be kind.”

Holocaust Museum LA is now accepting advance reservations for “Dimensions in Testimony.” For additional information, visit holocaustmuseumla.org.