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24th Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Annual Lecture: From Wire Recorder to Database–Testimony Technologies and the Digitization of the Holocaust

Public Program
A journalist interviews residents of the Kloster Indersdorf children's center, which was established after the Holocaust by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration to house non-German children who were orphaned or displaced. US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Lilo, Jack, and Micha Plaschkes

A journalist interviews residents of the Kloster Indersdorf children's center, which was established after the Holocaust by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration to house non-German children who were orphaned or displaced. US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Lilo, Jack, and Micha Plaschkes

In this lecture, DR. TODD PRESNER will focus on the technological history of Holocaust testimony from its earliest collection on a wire recorder by David Boder in 1946 through today. He will pay special attention to the issues of media forms, interfaces, information systems, and taxonomies, as well as the ethical issues that surround the collection and use of Holocaust testimony. Additionally, Dr. Presner will discuss how large-scale, digital databases of Holocaust testimony have changed the kind of questions scholars ask about the Holocaust, how they probe these historical events, and what can be discovered using digital tools.

Dr. Todd Presner, Professor, Germanic Languages, Comparative Literature, and Jewish Studies; Sady and Ludwig Kahn Director, Center for Jewish Studies; and Chair, Digital Humanities Program, University of California, Los Angeles

A reception will follow the lecture.

Sign language interpretation will be offered at this lecture.

The Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Annual Lecture honors excellence in research on the Holocaust and fosters dissemination of important, new Holocaust scholarship. Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff of Baltimore, Maryland, were active philanthropists in the United States and abroad, focusing especially on Jewish learning and scholarship, music, the arts, and humanitarian causes. Their children, Eleanor Katz and Harvey M. Meyerhoff, member and Chairman Emeritus of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, have endowed this lecture.