Movie magic is happening in Miami to capture the testimony of a Holocaust survivor. David Shaecter survived one of history’s deadliest periods and now his story will live forever.
One of the organizations behind this project, USC Shoah Foundation, said this started back in 2010 when they realized something extremely valuable, the testimony of survivors, was fading away.
Shaecter has spent the majority of his life speaking to children about his experience and journey through history.
“Because I besides talking to them, I also make them aware,” he said. “I ask things of them.”
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He said when he talks to children about his story of survival, he also tells them to always know who and what they are, and to spread his message when he’s gone.
This has also motivated the foundation to document this important testimony.
“We're going to be living in a world without survivors,” Ryan Fenton-Strauss said. “That direct connection between a survivor and a student or survivor, that that human connection that forms in a natural conversation is something that the world is going to be missing.”
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The testimony will be part of a museum exhibit in Boston, where his story will answer hundreds of questions from visitors using video of Shaecter to make a hologram, a little artificial intelligence and a lot of technology.
“We developed this list of over 1,000 questions by understanding who is David Schachter, What is his experience? And breaking down because we recognize that this is probably the one opportunity that we're going to be able to have to explore his entire life,” Fenton-Strauss said.
Jody Kipnis is one of the people behind the new Holocaust Museum in Boston, expected to open in 2025. That’s where the newest interactive video exhibit will be displayed.
She mentioned the current climate worldwide is one of the factors behind their creation.
“And it's not just antisemitism, it's all hate crimes about every anybody who's different that's going on now today in Boston, within our country and throughout our world,” she said.
Shaecter was a child when the Nazis took over parts of Europe. He moved to the United States in the 50s.
He survived four concentration camps by the time he was 15. Unfortunately, the rest of his family, including his father, mother and three siblings, were murdered in concentration camps. About another 100 relatives were also killed. He remembers the millions of kids killed in the Holocaust.
“As a matter of fact, I never stop thinking about them,” Shaecter said. “I was saying to myself, if these children had been given a chance to live as their kind, what kind of heights they might have reached."
It’ll take about five days to record all of Shacter’s answers. Then, the material will be archived and technology will be used to start creating the exhibit.
