30 October 2023 press release

From 30 October 2023, the German National Library's German Exile Archive 1933–1945 and the USC Shoah Foundation - the Institute for Visual History and Education - will be inviting visitors to train the digital interactive interview with eyewitness Inge Auerbacher.

In September 2023, the German Exile Archive 1933–1945 launched the exhibition "Frag nach” Just Ask! Digital interactive interviews with Inge Auerbacher and Kurt S. Maier", which is devoted to the life stories and memories of eyewitnesses Inge Auerbacher and Kurt S. Maier. As part of this project, the Exile Archive is trying out a new kind of digital testimony that will preserve the opportunity to interview eyewitnesses for posterity. Visitors to the exhibition are already able to enter into dialogue with the digital interactive interview given by Kurt S. Maier. A speech recognition software programme converts verbal questions into text data. The questions are then matched against the contents of a database by means of natural language processing. The appropriate answer sequence is then played. To reach this stage, the interview underwent an extensive production process which is still pending for the interview with Inge Auerbacher.

In order to ensure that it will still be possible to ask Inge Auerbacher about her life story and memories in the future, the AI that will later enable dialogue with Inge Auerbacher's digital interactive testimony has to be trained and improved. The German Exile Archive 1933–1945 is inviting school classes, other interested groups and individuals to take a first look at the interactive eyewitness testimony, test it and help improve it. This will be possible on site at the exhibition or online after registering at www.fragnach.org.

Inge Auerbacher was born 1934 in Kippenheim. In August 1942, Inge and her parents were deported to Theresienstadt, where they were imprisoned until the camp was liberated on 8 May 1945. The family emigrated to the USA in May 1946. The interview for Inge Auerbacher's digital interactive eyewitness testimony was recorded at a studio in New York in October 2022 over a period of five days. During the interview, Dr. Sylvia Asmus, Director of the German Exile Archive 1933–1945, asked Inge Auerbacher more than 900 questions about her life.

The interactive eyewitness account is also a part of the USC Shoah Foundation’s Dimensions in TestimonySM programme and was developed to ensure that the stories of eyewitnesses of the Shoah reach future generations. Using specially recorded interviews, Dimensions in TestimonySM makes it possible to engage in a question-and-answer-based interaction with eyewitnesses. This interactivity is a central feature of the experience provided by Dimensions in TestimonySM, as the eyewitnesses’ statements are only activated when a question is posed. Dimensions in TestimonySM is the first project of its kind in the world.

The project is being funded by the Minister of State for Culture and the Media and the State of Hesse as part of the programme “Hessen aktiv für Demokratie und gegen Extremismus” (Hesse – Active for Democracy and Against Extremism).

Frag nach, Just ask! – the interactive interviews with Inge Auerbacher und Kurt S. Maier
An exhibition of the German Exile Archive 1933-1945 at the German National Library
Monday to Friday 9:00 – 21:30
Saturday 10:00 – 17:30
Closed on Sundays and public holidays, also from 24.12. to 31.12.2023
Admission free

Visitors can interact with the digital eyewitness testimonies in the presence of a moderator Appointments for this can be made by email to exilarchiv@dnb.de or by phone at +49 69 1525-1994 or -1996

The training sessions for Inge Auerbacher's digital interactive interview will take place every Tuesday from the end of October. (Duration each approx 90 minutes):

Tuesday 31.10. 15:00 / Tuesday 7.11. 17:30 / Tuesday 14.11. 15:00 / Tuesday 21.11. 17:30 / Tuesday 28.11. 15:00 / Tuesday 5.12. 17:30 / Tuesday 12.12. 15:00 / Tuesday 19.12. 17:30

Information on the exhibition and registration for online interaction with the digital interactive testimonies by Inge Auerbacher (pre-version) and Kurt S. Maier: www.fragnach.org

Background

About the German Exile Archive 1933-1945
The German National Library’s German Exile Archive 1933–1945 is a platform for discussing the subjects of exile and emigration during the Nazi era. The archive collects testimonies of this exile: publications, institutional and personal legacies – from all walks of life and regardless of the prominence of the individual concerned. The Archive’s goal is to capture the phenomenon of exile in all its variety and to facilitate access to our holdings.

The establishment of the Exile Archive during the early post-war period was initiated by a number of émigrés who saw it as an instrument of political enlightenment. This is another reason why the Exile Archive attaches particular importance to cultural education: the many aspects of exile between 1933 and 1945 are conveyed in exhibitions and a wide variety of events and publications, thus making a significant contribution to the cultivation of a vibrant culture of remembrance.

About USC Shoah Foundation
With its Visual History Archive, award-winning IWitness education programme and the research carried out by the Center for Advanced Genocide Research, the USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education seeks to foster empathy, understanding and respect. The USC Shoah Foundation has now been reaching millions of people on six continents from its base at the University of Southern California for well over twenty years.

More information

Biography Dr. h.c. Inge Auerbacher

31 December 1934: born in Kippenheim (Baden) to Berthold and Regina Auerbacher

1938: on the night of the November pogrom, Inge’s father and grandfather are deported to Dachau, where they are imprisoned for several weeks.

In 1939, the family are forced to sell their house in Kippenheim; they move to Jebenhausen to live with Inge’s grandparents, Betty and Max Lauchheimer
From 1940, Inge attends the Jewish school in Stuttgart

1 December 1941: Inge’s grandmother is deported to Riga, where she is murdered

1941: shortly after the grandmother’s deportation, the family has to leave Inge’s grandparents’ house and move to quarters in a so-called Judenhaus (“Jew’s house”)

On 22 August 1942, Inge and her parents are deported to Theresienstadt. They are imprisoned there until the camp is liberated by the Red Army on 8 May 1945.

After a brief stay at a camp in Stuttgart, the Auerbacher family return to Jebenhausen. Shortly afterwards, they move to Göppingen, where they live until May 1946.

1946: the family emigrates to the USA

Shortly after her arrival in New York, Inge Auerbacher falls ill with tuberculosis, a legacy of her incarceration in Theresienstadt.

From 1948: discharge from hospital; education initially at home, then locally; interrupted by health setbacks

1950: completion of junior high school, graduation in 1953, Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry in 1958. Inge Auerbacher works as a chemist from then on.

Inge Auerbacher is granted U.S. citizenship in 1953.

1966: first return visit to her former home in Kippenheim

In 1986, she publishes her childhood memoirs under the title “I am a Star”; a German translation is published in 1990. Other publications follow, including “Beyond the Yellow Star” in 2005

Inge Auerbacher is still active as a contemporary witness today and pays special attention to young people when telling her life story.

Inge Auerbacher has received several awards in Germany and the USA for her work as a contemporary witness and a promoter of German-Jewish understanding; these include the German Federal Cross of Merit.

On Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January 2022, she was speaking in the German Bundestag. In her speech, she appealed to the people of Germany to oppose anti-Semitism.

October 2022: Inge Auerbacher is interviewed in New York, D.C. for Dimensions in Testimony

Informations about the production of Dimensions in TestimonySM

The eyewitnesses interviewed for Dimensions in Testimony sit in a green screen setting in front of cameras and a microphone. The interviewer asks questions. Each answer is recorded in a separate video clip. Up to 2,000 questions can be asked and answered. The result is a database of answers which can be retrieved in response to verbal questions asked by end-users. The Dimensions in Testimony system uses speech recognition technology to convert the questions asked into search terms. The system assigns the search terms to the most appropriate answer given by the eyewitness. Finally, the relevant video clip is played in order to create the impression of a conversation.

The system records all the questions asked. In order to improve the system’s precision, specially trained staff from the USC Shoah Foundation regularly review the system protocols to ensure that it selects the most closely matching answer given in the original interview context. The staff manually insert a link to the best answer if necessary. The quality of the system thus improves with every question asked. The improvements only become effective a few days or weeks later.

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Images for editorial use

Press image material is only available in German.